In 2014, NASCAR introduced its elimination format for the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, with one simple mantra to qualify: win one of the first 26 races, and you’re in.
It doesn’t matter how you do it.
Entering Sunday’s (August 12) Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway 32nd in points, Austin Dillon needed a win — a win that he had wrapped up until Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Ryan Preece crashed with two laps to go.
Dillon got outfoxed by Joey Logano on the overtime restart, and the No. 22 Ford was clear to the lead by the time the leaders took the white flag. For Dillon, that surefire ticket to the playoffs was dwindling away by the second. And as Logano approached the final set of corners, Dillon had one of two choices: settle for second or do anything necessary to cross first.
As we all know, he chose the latter.
Nearly four corners behind Logano as he entered turn 3, Dillon went full send into the corner, getting into the back of and spinning out Logano. Dillon had to check up to avoid crashing himself, and that allowed third-place Denny Hamlin to scoot through on the inside. That is until Dillon pulled a left out of turn 4 and sent Hamlin into the outside fence to keep the lead.
It took wrecking not one, but two drivers out of the lead for Dillon to win the race, but it counts all the same. He took the checkered flag and punched his ticket for the 2024 Cup playoffs.
It doesn’t matter how you do it, and it’s something Dillon knows damn well himself.
The beauty of NASCAR is that contact isn’t as restricted as in other forms of motorsport. Rubbing’s racing, the bump and run, you name it. They’re all textbook moves that have been used throughout the history of NASCAR.
But when contact is allowed, those dreaded judgment calls are a necessity. Bumping and moving a driver is one thing, but wrecking two drivers in one turn is another.
If there is a line, it got crossed on Sunday.
It’s not even how the finish unfolded, but rather how blatant it is from the top down. Dillon had to throw caution into turn 3 to even make contact with Logano’s bumper, and after spinning him out, the No. 3’s spotter tells Dillon to wreck the fast-approaching No. 11 of Hamlin. The SMT data shows that Dillon made a pivotal left turn of the steering wheel at the moment that Hamlin…
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