Childress: Austin Dillon Penalty Has 'Changed NASCAR Racing... Forever'
Obviously, Richard Childress is disappointed that NASCAR penalized Austin Dillon and the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing team following their win at Richmond Raceway. After two failed attempts at appealing the decision, which removed the automatic Playoff berth attached to Dillon's win in the Cook Out 400, the disappointment has not subsided for Childress.
On Saturday, Childress spoke to media members at Darlington Raceway about the rulings, and said that the decisions made by the National Motorsports Appeals Panel and the final appeal officer have changed the sport of NASCAR, "forever."
"Their ruling has changed NASCAR racing on the final lap, forever," Childress emphasized. "The drivers, now, know where the line is, or they think they do. If you go in a car length and 2-3-quarters was exactly how far back he was, and the other car slows down three miles-per-hour, on the last lap, you're going to bump him a little to get him up the race track. Is that over now? What is the line? And then if you go to racing somebody off of the corner, and they get loose and get into you, then does that mean you're out of the Chase? That's all I've got to say about the ruling. But it has changed racing for a win for sure."
While the penalties didn't have an attached monetary fine to them, Childress says the ruling, which dropped Dillon from being inside the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff field to potentially outside of it if the driver of the No. 3 Chevrolet doesn't win Sunday's Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, cost Richard Childress Racing more than $1 million.
"Over a million dollars, so, that's what it boils down to. [The] Largest fine ever in NASCAR," Childress groaned. "I'm just disappointed, disappointed, disappointed. That's all I can say. When I write my book, that will be a chapter in it. On second thought, I might write a second book and publish it, it'll be 60 years in NASCAR after I'm gone."
Childress then questioned the fairness of the National Motorsports Appeals Panel and the current NASCAR penalty appeals process.
"It's an appointed appeal group," Childress said of the National Motorsports Appeals Panel. "And it's tough to beat an appointment in anything."
The 78-year-old team owner says that he and his team did not consider legal action against NASCAR, but alleges that Richard Childress Racing had lawyers look at the appeal from both sides and according to Childress, the lawyers he spoke to told him that there was no way they would have lost the case in a courtroom.
"No. If it was a legal case, we had attorneys look at both sides of it, there's no way we would have lost," Childress explained.
Whether Childress would have won his argument in court or not is a topic for another day. In the present day, the only thing that matters is that Richard Childress Racing didn't win its appeal, or its final appeal, and will now face the possibility of both of its drivers, Dillon and Kyle Busch, being on the outside looking in of the Playoff field in 2024.
One last chance for Richard Childress Racing to stake its claim to a NASCAR Cup Series Playoff Field exists on Sunday night in the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.
Toby Christie is the Editor-in-Chief of Racing America. He has 15 years of experience as a motorsports journalist and has been with Racing America since 2023.