QOTD: Was Austin Dillon's Move Fair?

by Tim Healey

Published: August 12th, 2024

We'll give you a preview of this week's podcast -- we're going to talk a lot about what Austin Dillon did at Richmond last night.

If you missed it, here's what happened. Dillon, racing Joey Logano for the lead on the final lap, realized he didn't have the juice to pass. He did, however, have the momentum to close on Logano's bumper. So he drove into Logano, spinning him out, and when Denny Hamlin passed, Dillon moved down track and right-hooked Hamlin, sending him into the wall.

The reasonable person would likely say this type of driving is only OK in video games, but it's not specifically against NASCAR rules. And Dillon was desperate to get a win and make the playoffs.

So I have some questions here: Was what Dillon did OK, just because the rules allow it? Was it still wrong, even if legal, because of fairness and safety issues?* Should NASCAR change its rules?

*This is where I stand -- even if it's allowed, it's a jerk move. It's unfair and also puts the other drivers at needless risk of injury.

You know what to do. Sound off below.

[Image: NASCAR]

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Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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3 of 22 comments

Ltcmgm78 on Aug 14, 2024
Apparently, the cars are built sturdily enough to allow collisions. The drivers are not forbidden by the rules to drive like Dillon did. Although his actions probably aren't very sportsmanlike, they are legal. I say "what goes around comes around" and we'll see a later race where Mr. Dillon is the beneficiary of some heavy "argy-bargy."

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El scotto on Aug 14, 2024
Where to begin, where to begin? First of all, real race cars don't have fenders. None. Any open-wheel series doesn't allow blocking. In most open-wheel (real racing) series any contact is reviewed by the stewards. The cars are there to race, ie go faster, pass other cars. Such concepts are lost on NASCAR fans but so is dental hygiene and not dating someone with the same last name. Sadly NASCAR has devolved into watching stupid people do dumb things faster; both drivers and officials.

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- ToolGuy on Aug 15, 2024
  It seems like you are just smart enough to be miserable.
  
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