Austin Dillon was widely criticized by his peers for a pair of last-lap moves, which secured him his first win in the NASCAR Cup Series since the 2022 season in Sunday night’s Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway.
Joey Logano, who was spun by Dillon in Turn 4, called Dillon’s moves, “chickenshit,” and then Logano took additional shots at Dillon and what Logano perceives as the driver’s lack of talent. Denny Hamlin, who was hooked into the outside wall coming off of Turn 4 by Dillon, didn’t go as far as Logano in his criticisms of Dillon, but did say the moves crossed the line for sure, but he admitted that there is an “invisible line” in NASCAR, which makes these situations impossible to police.
Tyler Reddick, Bubba Wallace, and more heaved their thoughts after the race as well.
However, the critiques didn’t end with Dillon’s fellow NASCAR Cup Series drivers. Following the race, Paul Wolfe, who currently serves as the crew chief for Logano and was a driver in his own right, was seething after the race and in an interview with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio in the garage area, he blasted Dillon and NASCAR for what took place on the final lap of the race.
?? “It’s as far from racing as you can get and it’s really disappointing that #NASCAR allows stuff like that to go on.”
More from an understandably frustrated crew chief Paul Wolfe post-race last night at Richmond ??
? “What have we gotten to? Is this not racing anymore?” pic.twitter.com/y1v60kxsS2
— SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Ch. 90) (@SiriusXMNASCAR) August 12, 2024
“It’s just unfortunate what it turned into there on the last corner of the last lap,” Wolfe explained. “I’m not sure really what to say about that. It’s as far from racing as you can get, and it’s really disappointing that NASCAR allows stuff like that to go on. I don’t know really what else to say.”
When asking if Dillon should be penalized for his actions on the final lap, Wolfe didn’t hold back.
“Well, yeah, he wrecked us and then he hooked another car because he wasn’t going to win,” Wolfe said with rising anger. “Didn’t he hook the 11? It all sort of happened so fast. It wasn’t even — if he had washed up into us on the green going into [Turn] 1, you would understand. That’s what is going to happen. We raced clean, we passed him clean. We were four car lengths ahead of him. That wasn’t a racing incident. Anyone can see that. So, I guess what I’m asking NASCAR is what have we gotten to? Is this not racing anymore? At some point, we’re going to have to not turn into a circus here.”
Wolfe says that Dillon, the 32nd-place guy in points winning a race does make for a good storyline as far as the Playoffs go, but he feels that a good story shouldn’t come at the expense of the integrity of the sport.
“I get it, we want stories. We want cars that don’t run good in the Playoffs, but gosh we’re still racing here. And when we lose sight of that, I don’t know what we’re doing anymore,” Wolfe interjected. “So, it’s very frustrating. All of the time and effort, and all our sponsors, what everyone puts into this, and then it turns into that on the last lap. That’s — I don’t know what we’re doing. And it’s hard to understand. You know, that was not a racing incident, racing hard for a win. Like, there’s a difference and everyone in this garage can look at that and know that’s not what happened. I don’t know what else to say.”
At the end of the day, Wolfe says the ball is in NASCAR’s court to “do the right thing”.
“This is up to NASCAR to do the right thing. At some point, we’re going to have to make the call on what is acceptable or not. And just flat-out wrecking someone, that’s not racing,” Wolfe stated with intensity. “So, are we a racing series? Or what are we? If we’re not a racing series, we need to let everyone know we’re not racing anymore because that was not racing.”
While Dillon was allowed to go to victory lane and took home the trophy in the Cook Out 400, his fifth NASCAR Cup Series race win trophy of his racing career, NASCAR’s Elton Sawyer did explain to the media after the race that NASCAR will look at all of the resources at its disposal to determine if a penalty should be levied at Dillon for the aggressive moves on the final lap.
If NASCAR does issue a penalty, don’t expect the win to be revoked from Dillon. NASCAR very rarely takes a win away for a non-technical inspection violation, and even more rarely do they do so days after an event.
4 Responses
In my racing career it would be taken away b and a fine would be in order a big fine not just a slap on the wrist
Doing what Dillon did crossed the line and Nascar knows it. Taking the win away would be the only solution otherwise Nascar is saying it is okay. If you look back, that is how he got his other wins. I remember he wrecked Almirola at Daytona for a win as well.
Take away The win and a 100;000.00$ fine.
He should be fine and lose his crew chief and pit crew.
That was not racing but a demonstration derby