Anonymous NASCAR drivers rip Austin Dillon as driver they don’t want to restart next to
A few NASCAR drivers went after Austin Dillon ahead of the playoffs. During NASCAR Cup Series Playoff Media Day, Bob Pockrass of Fox Sports asked the 16 playoff drivers in a survey which driver they would least want beside them in a late-race restart, and two drivers said Dillion. That’s not the most as four drivers said Ross Chastain, but the drivers who picked Dillon didn’t hold back in their comments.
One driver said: “Based on recent events, it would be Austin Dillon.” Another driver added: “Austin Dillon. I can answer that one pretty easy.”
“We almost split this into two questions — least wanting beside you because they are so good and then another least wanting beside you because they are so sketchy,” Pockrass wrote. “But we opted for one question and left it up to interpretation.”
Last month, Dillon wrecked Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano during the final lap of the Cook Out 400 to win the race. The incident happened after an overtime restart, and NASCAR penalized Dillion, ruling that his win would not count toward eligibility for the Cup Series Playoffs.
More on Austin Dillon’s controversial Cook Out 400 win
“I think in all due respect to the appeal process, we looked at this and the totality of everything that happened as you enter Turn 3 and as the cars got to the start/finish line,” NASCAR senior vice president of competition Elton Sawyer said when the penalty was announced. “So, as we look through all of that data, we came to the conclusion that a line had been crossed. Our sport has been based going for many, many years, forever, on good, hard racing. Contact has been acceptable. We felt like, in this case, that the line was crossed.”
After the Cook Out 400, Dillon was asked if his win should have been taken away. “I’ve seen Denny and Joey make moves that have been running people up the track to win. This is the first opportunity in two years for me to be able to get a win. I drove in there and kept all four tires turning across the start/finish line,” Dillon said.
“To me, I’ve seen a lot of stuff over the years in NASCAR where people move people. It’s just part of our sport. You know what I mean? Remember when Joey said ‘short-track racing’. He knows what it was. In your shoes, what would you do?”
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