NASCAR Drivers Say Gray Area Is Still Gray Following Austin Dillon Penalty

Blame Austin Dillon if you want—NASCAR did with its penalty—for wrecking Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin on his way to a win last week at Richmond.

Following a firestorm caused by Dillon's bump-and-run move that took Logano and Hamlin out of the picture, NASCAR let Dillon keep his win, but took away the all-important ticket to the Cup Playoffs.

Drivers at this week's stop at Michigan International Speedway seemed to be split, or at least carefully sidestepping the question, on NASCAR's call in regards to Dillon.

And anyone looking for a silver lining—maybe something seemingly as simple as making the gray area of what's okay and what's not okay a little more black and white—can be assured that the line is still, well, as gray as ever.

Cup Series driver Bubba Wallace says a good part of this issue is rooted in NASCAR's win-and-you're-in Playoff system.

"It starts at Daytona Media Day. What will you do to win a race, and who's fault is that?" Wallace said. "It's the system's fault. They created this system to where you put it all on the line. But at the same time, we always say 'Would you wreck your mother to win? (Most say) well, of course.' No, I wouldn't. You do everything in your power under the respectful line to win the race.

"Now, people want to relate Logano and (Martin) Truex at Martinsville the same as what happened at Richmond. Who are these people? (At Martinsville), he moved him up the groove and they drag raced to the line. He may have plowed him, but he didn't spin him out wreck him and didn't give him a chance to finish. So it's nuts how we can relate this to that and that to this."

Wallace said it's all about respect on the racetrack.

"You have to remember where you came from and what it took to get here and all the things you had to go through and earn the respect of each other," Wallace said. "I remember getting to the Truck level and you were raced harder because you were a rookie. And things change. You start to gain the respect of your peers. You move to Xfinity and the cycle resets, and you get to Cup and it resets again.

"At the end of the day, it's a self-policing field. If the officials don't take care of you, we know how to take care of you."

Hamlin said that while the the is still not clear as to what is okay, most drivers know they don't want to get into that gray area.

"Hopefully, we've created a new precedent where if you spin out the leader in such and egregious manner, you get put to the last car on the lead lap or whatever it might be," Hamlin said. "I don't think it will deter. I know people are really worried about we don't want to stop the contact. You're not going to. We're still going to push the edge to try to 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. It's not going to be worth just cleaning someone out who was deservedly going to win the race."

Hamlin added that he knows that their is an entertainment factor that's part of the whole bump-and-run equation.

"I think there's a balance of entertainment and sport that can be had here. We've got to police the sporting aspect of this."

Hamlin added that he was happy with the decision that came down.

"I am," Hamlin said. "Certainly in the moment, you say just take away the win and everything else takes care of itself. As I understand it, there's some iffy language in the rule book—can your really go back and take away a win this late in the game.

"I think in the future, you just send whoever it is to the back and it all fixes itself. You don't have to worry about taking off Playoff eligibility and stuff like that."

Logano, who felt he was well on his way to a race win before being punted at Richmond, was quick to remind everyone that Dillon wasn't the only one affected by the incident and ruling—a ruling that has been appealed by Richard Childress Racing.

"We all know what (Dillon's) intentions were, he said what his intentions were afterwards," Logano said. "He did it and he's paying the consequences for it. Unfortunately, I am too, and that will never change for me.

"My win is taken away, and I'll never get it back."