NASCAR strips Austin Dillon of playoff berth after he wrecked Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin for win at Richmond

Austin Dillon’s no longer in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.

NASCAR said Wednesday that Dillon would be allowed to keep the win from Sunday’s race at Richmond but wouldn’t be able to use that win to qualify for the playoffs. Dillon crashed both Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin on the last lap in his efforts to make the postseason in NASCAR’s win-and-in playoff format.

Dillon entered the race 32nd in the points standings and appeared to have the race won straight up before a late caution for a crash between Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Ryan Preece. After pit stops, Logano got the lead on the ensuing overtime restart and was leading into Turns 3 and 4 on the final lap before Dillon dumped him.

As Dillon slowed to avoid Logano’s spinning car, Hamlin went low to pass Dillon for the win. As Hamlin was doing that, Dillon turned low into Hamlin and hooked Hamlin into the wall.

Dillon’s penalty came Wednesday as NASCAR declined to make a ruling in the immediate aftermath of the checkered flag. After the race, NASCAR executive Elton Sawyer said that NASCAR would review what happened on the final lap and that what Dillon did was up against the line of what is and isn’t acceptable on the track.

Dillon was also penalized 25 points for his moves on the final lap in addition to having his playoff spot taken away. He’s now 31st in the points standings and can still qualify for the playoffs if he wins one of the final three races of the regular season at either Michigan, Daytona or Darlington.

His spotter Brandon Benesch was suspended for three races after he was heard saying “wreck him” on the final lap. Logano has been fined $50,000 for revving the engine of his car as he came to a stop on pit road near family and members of Dillon’s team after the race.

Richard Childress Racing is appealing the penalties to Dillon.

Dillon’s desperation is borne of NASCAR’s playoff system

NASCAR’s win-and-in playoff format begs drivers like Dillon to do what he did Sunday night. With just four races to go before the postseason, Dillon entered the race knowing he needed to get a victory to advance to the postseason and earn a lot more prize money for his team.

Even if you don’t agree with his actions on the final lap, you can understand why he acted upon his desperation. After driving away with the lead in the final laps, Dillon found himself in second place with a half-lap to go. Sunday night was probably going to be his best chance to get a playoff spot.

“I’ve seen Denny and Joey make moves that have been running people up the track to win,” Dillon said in his post-race news conference. “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.

“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?”

He also acted with the presumed comfort of a NASCAR that wasn’t going to do much, if anything, about it. NASCAR has been reluctant to penalize drivers for rough driving at the Cup level over the past decade. In 2014, Ryan Newman — while driving for the same team Dillon drives for today — purposely crashed Kyle Larson in the penultimate race of the season to move on to the winner-take-all final round. NASCAR didn’t penalize Newman at all for that maneuver.

But Dillon’s move of crashing not one, but two drivers on Sunday night was apparently even too egregious for NASCAR to let slide. Had he simply crashed Logano and not Hamlin, it seems likely that NASCAR keeps Dillon in the playoffs.

Could the right hook of Hamlin have been the tipping point? Just a year ago at Charlotte, Chase Elliott was suspended for a race after he hooked Hamlin into the wall in a similar spot.

It’s time for NASCAR to revamp its officiating

The multi-day delay between the end of the race and NASCAR’s Wednesday announcement underscored the dilemma NASCAR currently faces with its officiating.

There are plenty of reasons why NASCAR race control should have immediately reviewed the finish of the race Sunday night and penalized Dillon in the moments after. As Wednesday’s penalty showed, Dillon’s actions were worthy of a significant penalty. And it was clear to anyone watching live that what he did wasn’t going to go unpunished.

But, as hardcore fans can attest, NASCAR’s race control decisions have also shown to be inconsistent at best in recent seasons. Just two years ago, NASCAR penalized William Byron two days after he intentionally spun Denny Hamlin under caution during a race. The spin went unpunished during the race.

By waiting until Wednesday, NASCAR dragged out what should have been a cut-and-dry decision and also opened itself up to an appeal overturning this decision. By rule, teams can’t appeal in-race officiating decisions. They can, however, appeal mid-week penalty decisions. And sometimes those appeals work. Byron’s penalty was overturned on appeal less than two weeks later. Had he been punished during the race, the penalty would have stuck.

Will this process play out the same way if a win-and-in driver intentionally crashes another for the win at the regular-season finale in Darlington? Will NASCAR adjust the playoff field halfway through the week before the first playoff race?

At the very least, the saga shows that NASCAR needs to be more immediate with consequential calls like this. Penalizing Dillon was the right move. And hopefully it empowers NASCAR to act quicker when a similar situation happens in the future.