Denny Hamlin reacts to unprecedented Austin Dillon penalty, if it fixes NASCAR playoff system

Denny Hamlin believes NASCAR penalizing Austin Dillon for wrecking Joey Logano and himself coming to the checkered flag at Richmond last weekend might’ve fixed their playoff system.

NASCAR has been longing for a Game 7-like feeling in their racing week-in and week-out, but Dillon took it to a new level, egregiously wrecking Logano and Hamlin last Sunday for the win.

Speaking with the media ahead of this weekend’s race at Michigan, Hamlin stated his belief that Dillon’s penalty will help with deterring drivers from simply wrecking competitors for wins in the future, although he’d like to see it called more immediately than it was last weekend.

“Man, I certainly hope so,” Hamlin stated, via Jerry Jordan of Kickin The Tires. “I certainly would love to see it called in real time going forward. I think there’s going to be an opportunity in a few weeks, for NASCAR to perhaps use the bottom series to start to set precedents for us, to let us know, to let people know that they’re not going to put up with intentional wrecking over wins. I think there’s some incidents that have happened in the past that probably, if this is a new precedent, it could fall under those.

“For instance, when I spun out Chase Elliott in 2016, I would deem that as well, I know I didn’t intentionally wreck him, I tried to move him out of the way, but I intentionally made contact with him. The result does matter. I watched a CARS Tour race, three times someone got put to the back for spinning. It was just an easy call, it really is an easy call, but you have to give the people in the tower the liberty to do it, and hopefully we’ve created a new precedent, where if you spin out the leader in such an egregious manner, you get put to the last car on the lead lap, or whatever it might be.

“I certainly think there’s going to be some — I don’t think it’ll deter. I know people were worried about, ‘Well we don’t want to stop the contact,’ we’re not going to. We’re still going to push the edge to try and get the guy out of the groove to win the race, we’re still going to make contact, but it certainly would give us pause in those situations that you saw last weekend, where you know, is it really — it’s not going to be worth just cleaning someone out, that deservedly was going to win the race, which is the fair part of the sport, I think. I think there’s a balance of entertainment and sport that can be had here, but it’s just a matter of — that’s one where you just really need to put your foot down, and say, ‘We’ve got to police the sporting aspect of this,’ at that point.”

Alas, Denny Hamlin makes some salient points on the subject, and time will tell if Austin Dillon’s penalty truly changes the way drivers treat the playoff system. For all it’s flaws, it’s provided some truly exciting moments, but it could certainly be improved.

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