NASCAR Sets Final Appeal Date For Austin Dillon As Richard Childress Racing Escalates Appeal

A final appeal date for Richard Childress Racing and driver Austin Dillon is scheduled for next Monday. This follows the decision by the National Motorsports Appeals Panel to uphold a controversial NASCAR penalty against Dillon, prompting RCR to pursue a final appeal.

Bill Mullis, owner of Langley Speedway, will preside as the final appeals officer in this high-stakes case.

Despite recent triumphs, including a victory at Richmond, Dillon finds his season clouded by uncertainty. The win, under normal circumstances, would have secured his place in the playoff series.

However, the looming penalty negates these achievements, disqualifying him from playoff eligibility unless he clinches a win in either of the upcoming Daytona or Darlington races.

The prospects for reversing the NASCAR penalty appear dim. The consensus is that Bill Mullis, the appointed appeals officer, is unlikely to counter both the original penalty and the decision upheld by the three-member appeal panel.

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The final appeal for RCR and Austin Dillon will be Monday.

— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) August 22, 2024

NASCAR’s management, represented by President Steve Phelps, stands firm in their decision, advocating for consistent enforcement of rules to maintain the sport’s integrity and safety.

Phelps, in an appearance on Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour, explained the importance of the penalty. He commented, 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 continued:

“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.”