Could NASCAR issue a penalty to Austin Dillon?
On Sunday, the NASCAR cup Series race ended with a controversial overtime finish. Austin Dillon crashed both Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin en route to the race win on the final lap at Richmond Raceway.
Listen to the Austin Dillon team audio below.
The move has caused a storm in the NASCAR community. Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin both called for Dillon to be penalized.
Directly after the race, NASCAR announced they would review all the data in search of possible penalties. One piece of the data they’ll review is team audio. And, the team audio doesn’t sound good…
Austin Dillon’s team screamed over the radio on the final lap, “I don’t care how you do it.”
That was followed by, “Down, down, down. Wreck him! C’mon, c’mon. F*** yeah!”
Austin Dillon crashes Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin to win (Video)
Austin Dillon says he didn’t hear anything from his team over the radio
“At that point, I’m elbows up and holding the throttle down and just trying to get to the finish line,” Austin Dillon stated from the media center after the race.
“I’m sideways off of four. Hammer the gas and I’m just looking at the start/finish line. I ain’t hearing shit at that point.”
“Eyes turned red. You see red, you get to the end of the race. If anybody came over the radio, it doesn’t matter. A lot of people lose their jobs because they don’t get to the start/finish line first.”
#11 Team Radio
Shortly after the incident, the No. 11 team was already looking at SMT data from the No. 3 car:
“SMT confirmed, he crushed you. I just watched SMT, there’s no doubt about it.”
“Yep. His spotter just admitted to me, ‘That’s on me. I told him to do it.’ I said, ‘You told him to right rear us?’ 100%, we had to win.”
Denny Hamlin comments on the move by Austin Dillon
Denny Hamlin is looking for NASCAR to make a call
“Make a call and it will deter us from doing these stupid-ass acts,” Denny Hamlin stated via the Action’s Detrimental podcast.
“He drove drove in, until he spun him out. As instructed by his team.”
“Draw a line in the sand as a sanctioning body. And say, no that is unacceptable. That is not a racing incident that was intentional.”
NASCAR generally releases a weekly penalty report on Tuesday.
NASCAR reacts as Austin Dillon crashes his way to victory lane
Denny Hamlin calls out NASCAR after Austin Dillon crashes him
Austin Dillon
Team Radio Audio
Links
Austin Dillon | Joey Logano | Denny Hamlin | Richmond Raceway | NASCAR
