By Jerry Jordan, Editor
BROOKLYN, Mich. – While Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin can share their thoughts candidly on the incident with them and Austin Dillon on the final lap of the NASCAR race this past week at Richmond Raceway, Dillon told a small group of reporters at Michigan International Speedway he is limited on what he can say until the appeal plays out.
“I want to get through the appeal process and then I will gladly give you my point of view and my side of the story as best I can,” Dillon said, to a small group of reporters that included Kickin’ the Tires, Bob Pockrass with FOX Sports, Jeff Gluck with The Athletic and Dustin Albino with Jayski.
At Richmond, Dillon dominated much of the race and had the lead until a caution came out for Ricky Stenhouse Jr. wrecking Ryan Preece a lap away from the white flag lap. On the restart, Dillon, who was in 32nd place and whose only hope for making the playoffs was a win, lost the lead and divebombed Turn 4 on the final turn of the final lap of the race. He knocked Logano out of the way and then turned down the track to avoid the spinning No. 22 car. At that point, he got into Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota as it came up the track and he was moving down resulting in a hook that put Hamlin in the wall. Dillon continued on to get the win. On Wednesday, NASCAR took away the benefits of the win but left Dillon with the trophy.
He explained that he was pretty “happy” overall because he had won the race and while he couldn’t say a lot about the penalty that stripped him of the benefits of his victory at Richmond, he did say he shared some of his views on ESPN’s Marty and McGee Podcast, hosted by Marty Smith and Ryan McGee.
“With that appeal, obviously, we deserve to be in the playoffs and want to reverse that NASCAR has made to take our playoff eligibility away and we feel like we have a case to stand on and should,” he said on the show. And added that he would be happy to return once the appeal process is complete.
Dillon, who drives the No. 3 made famous by the late Dale Earnhardt, a controversial racer in his own right, added that he is used to controversy following him because of his family’s history in racing and he knows his grandfather, Richard Childress, isn’t one to back down.
Dillon said on the show that he wasn’t too concerned about what people were saying about him. It’s something he has dealt with for most of his life and his faith and love of family help him get beyond outside opinions. However, he believes some of those outside opinions may have impacted how NASCAR ruled regarding the incident at Richmond and it will be something that is brought up at the appeal.
“When you talk about opinions, you know, we have been in the sport for as long as anyone,” Dillon said. “NASCAR forever, you look at the landscape of it, decisions were made by NASCAR. And now, with the new landscape, at least, what we heard was industry stakeholders’ opinions were taken into account this past week. It is interesting for sure because, for us, we were awaiting a decision that came out on Wednesday. It is a different dynamic now, so we have to do a very good job, we have to look to RCR, all of our partners to do a very good job in this appeal process and that is what we will do.”
Because NASCAR considers everything said by a driver and team during an appeal, Dillon is extremely limited in what he can say in his defense. He explained that to the group of reporters at Michigan and on the Marty and McGee podcast.
He explained he wasn’t upset and still has the trophy from Richmond so his focus is moving toward the Firekeepers Casino 400, the appeal and then on to Daytona and Darlington, which is the final regular season cutoff race before the playoffs. He added that he feels confident with his chances on the appeal and that RCR has been gathering evidence for his defense, short of explaining what that actually entailed. He even said he learned a lot about how the appeals process works from Hamlin’s Actions Detrimental podcast.
“I am, I feel pretty good about it,” Dillon said. “I think Denny Hamlin has a podcast about the appeal process. He lays it out pretty well on how the appeal usually works. I think that is why he was pretty forthcoming early in the week on his opinion of everything. The appeal process isn’t easy but we will do a good job on our side to try and cover all of our bases and see what the outcome really is.
“I respect his (Denny) his tactfulness and his brain when it comes to competition and how he portrays himself, He does a very good job in his gamesmanship. I have nothing but respect for Denny. I think he plays the game well and this is a game. This is a sport. I have to do the same thing, right now, with my approach to everything that is going, so, right now, we are in the middle of the thick of it for that process.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: Previous Column On The Richmond Raceway Incident