Trouble for Richard Childress Racing as Austin Dillon’s Playoff Eligibility Is Revoked
At the conclusion of last Sunday’s race at Richmond Raceway, Austin Dillon made a lot of enemies. Dive-bombing leader Joey Logano into turn four on the last lap, Dillon put the bumper to the #22 car of Logano with no real chance of making the corner. If that wasn’t enough, Dillon then took it upon himself to hook the #11 car of Denny Hamlin and sent him into the fence before the race finished. Leaving the #3 car of Austin Dillon as the winner and moving a driver who was at the time 32nd in points into one of the 16 playoff spots. However, NASCAR ruled yesterday that this promotion into the playoffs would not stand for the Richard Childress Racing #3 team.
Austin Dillon knew looking from the outside in, that getting into the NASCAR playoffs would be no easy feat this season with only four races remaining. For this reason, he wrecked two other cars on Sunday in order to reach the checkered flag first. Now, with three races remaining, despite obtaining a race win, the #3 car from Richard Childress Racing will still need one more in order to qualify for the Round of 16 Playoffs. NASCAR made a few different rulings on Wednesday, citing that in winning the race in such fashion as Dillon did on Sunday, it violated section 12.3.2.1.b of NASCAR’s rule book which reads that wins making playoff drivers eligible should be unencumbered by violations of NASCAR’s rules. NASCAR also ruled that Joey Logano would be fined $50,000 for retaliating against the #3 team in the pits after the race.
Going into the FireKeepers Casino 400 this Sunday at Michigan International Speedway, the #3 team of Austin Dillon and Richard Childress Racing now sits at 31st in points, just one spot above their position last week despite winning a race. Richard Childress Racing will look to improve on an awful season with drivers Kyle Busch and Austin Dillon, by grabbing a win in the next three races so that one of their drivers may be eligible for the field of 16 playoff drivers. At this point in the season, Austin Dillon is too far from contention to make the playoffs on points and needs another win to advance, but Kyle Busch is still within striking distance of a playoff spot sitting currently at 18th in points. Being two spots away from contention, Richard Childress Racing will look to keep their playoff hopes alive at either Michigan, Daytona, or Darlington before the regular season comes to an end.
