NASCAR Cup Richmond II

Hamlin: NASCAR stripping Dillon of win would be “warranted”

Star driver/team owner says sanctioning body should make a “big-boy call” to act as a deterrent after Dillon wrecked two cars at the final corner to win at Richmond.

Charles Bradley

Published: Aug 12, 2024, 11:33 PM

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Hamlin believes that if NASCAR stripped Austin Dillon of his win in Sunday’s Cup race at Richmond that all other drivers in the garage would agree that it was “warranted”.

Dillon wrecked Joey Logano and Hamlin in the final two turns to claim victory and a place in NASCAR’s end-of-season playoffs in Sunday night’s dramatic race.

Hamlin spoke for over an hour on the subject on his Actions Detrimental podcast, entitled ‘Integrity of the Sport on the Line’ that dropped on Monday afternoon.

When asked if other drivers would agree if NASCAR stripped Dillon of his win, he replied: "Yes, 100% of them would say that was warranted."

“I can’t imagine any other driver saying ‘well, yeah, the way he did it there to get in the playoffs, that was fair’. Nobody would say that was fair.

“We have these rules in every other series because they know you cannot just open it up to allow these drivers to do whatever it takes, crash someone, hurt someone – you can do whatever you want. You cannot allow that, not as the top form of motorsports.

“The sanctioning body need to be big boys and needs to make big-boy calls. You can’t just not make calls on blatant, intentional wrecking.”

Watch: Austin Dillon takes the checkered flag after bumps for the lead

Hamlin revealed he had a “cordial conversation” with NASCAR post-race, along with team owners Joe Gibbs and his wife Heather, Dave Alpern (team president) and crew chief Chris Gabehart: “We laid out how we felt about it. They said, like always, they’ll take a look at it.”

NASCAR traditionally reports any penalties from race weekends on the Tuesday after the event, allowing it times to revisit camera angles, data and radio traffic.

Earlier in the podcast, Hamlin called on NASCAR to “penalize him, like you’re supposed to” and read out the rules pertaining the “orderly conduct of the sport”. He pointed out that NASCAR’s deterrent system “is to keep us within parameters of not getting out of control on the racetrack”.

When challenged on what sanction should be levied at Dillon, he replied: “It’s up to them. But there’s no monetary, no points fine that does anything. You have to do something to say you cannot intentionally crash someone for a win.

‘That was not a racing move. It is blatant and intentional wrecking that goes against the rules – times two. If you care about integrity of the sport, and you want to see us taken seriously, it would be hard to look away. So, stop it right now before it gets there.

“If we allow egregious acts then you open the door for this to happen again. You have to put the bumpers on us, because clearly we’re not thinking straight as drivers, which is why we have rules in place to keep us within the roadway here.”

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