NASCAR: Appeal Officer Releases Final Verdict Of Austin Dillon’s Penalty

Richard Childress Racing driver Austin Dillon has had his final appeal denied, confirming severe penalties including the loss of his Richmond race playoff eligibility and a deduction of 25 points from his season tally.

This ruling follows actions during the race’s dramatic last lap at Richmond Raceway on August 11, 2024, where Dillon intentionally crashed into Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin to take the victory.

Richard Childress Racing initially appealed the penalty, which was denied. However, the team decided to take it a step further with another appeal with the Final Appeals Panel, but this has now also been denied.

Appeals Officer Bill Mullis released the following statement, as reported by Bob Pockrass:

“In reaching the above decision, the FAO provided the following explanation: ‘The data presented today from SMT and IDAS systems indicate that more likely than not a rule violation did occur at Richmond Raceway on 8-11-24 by the No. 3 RCR car on the last lap of the race. (Rule 12.3.2.1.B Eligibility, race finishes must be unencumbered by violations of the NASCAR rules or other actions detrimental to stock car auto racing or NASCAR as determined in the sole discretion of NASCAR.)'”

This final decision leaves Dillon in a precarious position, ranking 29th in the overall points standings. Dillon now just has one chance to get through to the playoffs by winning the upcoming race at Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway this coming weekend.

NASCAR president Steve Phelps previously spoke about Dillon’s penalty, as Newsweek previously reported:

“I’ve heard from drivers over the years, ‘I don’t know where the line is.’ ‘Tell me where the line is.’ ‘Can you show me the line?’ I’m like, ‘I can’t show you the line, but you will know when it has been crossed.

“So, if you hook someone going 170 mph on a mile-and-a-half track, you have crossed the line, and we’re going to park you.

“We’ve been consistent. We’ve had two of those. Do we want to do that? We don’t, but we need to make sure that we are keeping our drivers safe, and when you have a situation like that, it’s not safe.

“I think as we were looking at the data and what happened, it happened so quickly, but you had two incidents in a split second. Turn 3 you had an incident. Turn 4 you had an incident, and then the race was concluded.

“I think the bump-and-run or slam-and-run or whatever it was, I won’t suggest that there wouldn’t have been a penalty; I have no idea, because you had a second move, and the second move was a hook, in our opinion, which was both the eye test and the data would suggest that’s what happened.

“And then he put a competitor also at risk. Denny took a hard hit … there was a line that was crossed in our opinion.”

He added:

“If we hadn’t penalized it, then I think what we would see over the next 12 weeks would look significantly different.

“We just can’t have it. It really comes down to ‘what do you want your sport to be?’ And that’s why I think we ruled the way we did because we’re not demolition derby; we’re just not. We are a sport that if we had done nothing, we would’ve opened ourselves up for a mess, honestly.”

NASCAR Cup Series: Current Standings

1. Tyler Reddick – 823 points
2. Kyle Larson – 806 points
3. Chase Elliott – 805 points
4. Ryan Blaney – 755 points
5. William Byron – 743 points
6. Christopher Bell – 737 points
7. Brad Keselowski – 718 points
8. Denny Hamlin – 712 points
9. Martin Truex Jr – 695 points
10. Ty Gibbs – 676 points
11. Chris Buescher – 658 points
12. Alex Bowman – 648 points
13. Bubba Wallace – 637 points
14. Ross Chastain – 631 points
15. Joey Logano – 586 points
16. Kyle Busch – 552 points
17. Daniel Suárez – 527 points
18. Chase Briscoe – 514 points
19. Austin Cindric – 486 points
20. Todd Gilliland – 480 points
21. Carson Hocevar – 467 points
22. Michael McDowell – 459 points
23. Josh Berry – 448 points
24. Noah Gragson – 426 points
25. Ricky Stenhouse Jr – 404 points
26. Erik Jones – 381 points
27. Ryan Preece – 368 points
28. Daniel Hemric – 365 points
29. Austin Dillon – 360 points
30. Justin Haley – 356 points
31. John H. Nemechek – 343 points
32. Corey LaJoie – 335 points
33. Zane Smith – 316 points
34. Harrison Burton – 306 points
35. Kaz Grala – 166 points
36. Cody Ware – 98 points
37. Joey Hand – 43 points
38. Jimmie Johnson – 39 points
39. Derek Kraus – 32 points
40. David Ragan – 17 points
41. Kamui Kobayashi – 8 points
42. Will Brown – 6 points
43. Cam Waters – 2 points