“Let me get this straight. You think that your client — one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in the world — is secretly a vigilante, who spends his nights beating criminals to a pulp with his bare hands, and your plan is to blackmail this person? Good luck.” – Lucius Fox, “The Dark Knight“
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I laughed.
Don’t get me wrong.
When Austin Dillon punted Joey Logano, then proceeded to intentionally right hook Denny Hamlin into Richmond Raceway’s outside wall Sunday (Aug. 11) night, I wasn’t laughing at the dangerous situation Dillon had initiated.
I laughed because, of course, Dillon did it.
Which is why I chose the above quote from The Dark Knight to start this column.
Not because of the quote itself, but the way Morgan Freeman delivered the line.
Here, listen for yourself.
Given NASCAR’s appropriate penalty for Richard Childress Racing and Dillon, with his win not making him playoff eligible, read the following in Freeman’s voice.
“Let me get this straight, NASCAR. You created a ‘win-and-or-in’ playoff qualification system, then removed the top 30 in points requirement, then expected a driver — who was 32nd in points, hadn’t won in two years and had only two top 10s this season — to behave reasonably?
Good luck with that.”
What Dillon did Sunday night in order to salvage a year from hell was over the line.
But NASCAR shares some of the guilt in this situation.
After Corey LaJoie almost won at Atlanta Motor Speedway in 2022 in a situation where he still wouldn’t have been playoff-eligible because he was below 30th in points, NASCAR took off safety railings that shouldn’t have been removed.
Way back in 2006 — a simpler age, before The Dark Times of the sport’s decline and its increasing obsession with Game 7 moments — NASCAR was worried about someone locking into the post season with one win.
“We’re trying to see if there is a way to earn a spot in the Chase without harming the integrity of it,” said a sanctioning body spokesperson at the time.
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