Austin Dillon Believes RCR 'Deserves' to be in Playoffs; Hopeful for Appeal
It's been a tumultuous six days for Austin Dillon, the driver of the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. On Sunday night, Dillon made a pair of aggressive moves on the final lap of the Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway to win the race and seemingly locked himself into the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.
Three days later, NASCAR's Elton Sawyer, who explained that NASCAR took into account the entire body of work of what happened from Turn 3 to the start-finish line at Richmond, said that NASCAR ultimately decided that Dillon's aggressive final-lap moves were, "over the line."
While NASCAR allowed Dillon to keep the official win on his stat sheet, the sanctioning body stripped the 34-year-old driver of the automatic Playoff berth that came with it.
Dillon addressed the penalty publicly for the first time on Saturday at Michigan International Speedway in an interview with USA Network during the NASCAR Cup Series FireKeepers Casino 400 practice/qualifying broadcast. Dillon explained that he knows that as it stands, he needs to get another win if he wants to be in the Playoffs this year, but that he's hopeful that order will be restored for his team after their appeal is heard.
Austin Dillon hopes the appeal process will put the No. 3 team back in the playoffs, where he says they "deserve to be." #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/5zlNx2tgk6
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) August 17, 2024
"With the current situation, we need to win," Dillon said. "Hopefully, after our appeal we get back in the Playoffs where we deserve to be. Just excited about what we've got going on at RCR."
When pressed further on his thought process going into the appeals process, and what his team's goal is going into the situation, Dillon refused to tip his hand, and equated his date with the National Motorsports Appeals Panel to a trial.
"Truthfully, I think the best thing I can say right now is we've got an appeal process. I think this entire sport -- I've got to be careful with what I give out right now and for the appeals process. Because it's going to be like a trial, it really is," Dillon said. "And I wish everybody could see it. The television... would be cool to be in there. Because I haven't really given my entire story of the game yet. And I feel like Denny did a really good job on his podcast giving his side of the story adamantly this week. A couple of extra podcasts than he normally does. And for us, I also listened to his podcast when he talked about the appeals process and how tough it is."
At the end of the day, Dillon will do everything within his power to put his No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 back in victory lane again this weekend, and he will bring his best debate into the appeal. The driver truly feels that he and his team deserve to be among the field of 16 battling for a championship. Dillon says once his appeal has been heard, he'll open up with his thoughts to the media.
"I'm going to do my best to get our RCR [team] in the Playoffs where they need to be, where they deserve to be, currently, and from there, I will give all of the media and everybody else my exact feelings after all of that is said and done and over with," Dillon stated.
While it's hard to not take rulings like Wednesday's, which knocked him from the Playoff field, personally, Dillon says he has no hard feelings toward NASCAR. He says he owes everything he has in his life to the sport that he loves.
"But I can't say enough about NASCAR. You know, they've given me everything I've got in this life," Dillon expressed. "Even my wife and kids. I met my wife at the racetrack. I'm thankful for winning races. We've got a win this year, which feels really good. But yeah, we'll just keep going and we'll see what comes of the next couple of weeks."
Dillon will roll from the 10th starting spot in Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway after Saturday's qualifying session was washed out by rain. Denny Hamlin, one of the two drivers, who was swept up in the last-lap chaos with Dillon at Richmond, will start from the pole.
The FireKeepers Casino 400 is set for Sunday, August 18 at 2:30 PM ET with television coverage being provided by USA Network. For those looking to stream the race, it will be available on the NBC Sports App with a valid cable subscription login. The radio broadcast of the event will be carried by the Motor Racing Network (MRN) as well as SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
TOBY CHRISTIE