[autotag]Denny Hamlin[/autotag] exited Turn 4 on the final lap at Richmond Raceway and all but sealed his trip to victory lane; however, [autotag]Austin Dillon[/autotag]’s No. 3 car ended up being in his way. Hamlin took the normal racing line while Dillon went in a different direction and hooked the right rear of the No. 11 car. It’s unclear if it was intentional, but NASCAR should release its decision soon.
Hamlin went on his podcast, Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin, and talked about the idea of penalizing Dillon. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver called for NASCAR to penalize Dillon so this doesn’t become a common situation moving forward.
“You are the sanctioning body,” Hamlin said. “You are the big boys in the room. You have to make tough calls sometimes. Sometimes you make the right call, even if it’s a tough call…You can’t wreck two guys to then go win a race and then reap the benefits and reward of that…You can basically say to everyone that we deem that as not a racing incident, that it was intentional. It altered the finish of the race, therefore this person does not deserve to win.”
AUSTIN DILLON SLAMS INTO JOEY LOGANO!
HE WINS AT RICHMOND. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/6fCmEzG6WC
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) August 12, 2024
“The sanctioning body needs to be big boys and make big boy calls…I just worry about the long-term effects. Let’s take me out of it, just the long-term effects that this has on racing. We started to see this morph its way into ridiculousness at the end of these races…Martinsville, God knows, I mean, we all know what’s coming in a few months, right? We’re going to get a green-white-checkered, and everyone will wipe each other out because they have not enforced the rule book in these situations.”
Hamlin finished in second place at Richmond, so if NASCAR were to take away Dillon’s victory, he would reap the benefits of such a decision. NASCAR has a tough decision to make as this will likely set a precedent moving forward. The worst outcome is NASCAR doing nothing, but it seems likely that something will be decided soon.
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