Austin Dillon’s victory in Richmond does not officially qualify him for the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.
Richard Childress Racing’s final appeal of the penalty imposed on Dillon was denied by NASCAR’s appeals officer on Monday. Dillon’s victory on August 11 qualified him for the playoffs after he wrecked both Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin before the finish line. But NASCAR ruled several days after the race that Dillon’s conduct was illegal and stripped him of the playoff spot that came with the win.
Dillon is still officially recognized as the winner of the race, even though the team’s appeal during the appeals process was not enough to change NASCAR’s decision.
In a statement, Bill Mullis, NASCAR’s final appeals officer, said: “The data presented today from the SMT and IDAS systems indicate that a violation of the rules most likely occurred on 8/11/24 at Richmond Raceway by the No. 3 RCR car on the final lap of the race.”
NASCAR cited its rules, which give it wide discretion in determining actions that are detrimental to racing, in fining Dillon. RCR’s initial appeal of Dillon’s penalty was denied last week.
The playoff situation with one race remaining in the regular season
Dillon’s scenario for the last race of the regular season in Darlington is now crystal clear: he has to win the race to get into the playoffs. Dillon is currently in 29th place in the points table and mathematically no longer catapulted into the 16-driver field.
Maintaining the penalty is also big news for drivers like Bubba Wallace and Ross Chastain. Thirteen drivers have earned wins that secured a playoff spot following Harrison Burton’s surprise victory at Daytona on Saturday night, leaving three spots for winless drivers unless a winless driver wins at Darlington and secures one of the three remaining spots.
The highest-placed driver in the winless group is Martin Truex Jr. He is currently ninth in the overall points standings, 58 points ahead of Wallace.
Between Truex and Wallace are Ty Gibbs and Chris Buescher. Gibbs is 19 points behind Truex and Buescher is 18 points behind Gibbs – and 21 points ahead of Wallace.
Wallace, meanwhile, is the first driver to arrive at Darlington outside the playoff bubble and is six points ahead of Chastain. If Wallace and Chastain don’t win on Sunday night, they’ll need to earn enough points to overtake one of the winless drivers ahead of them. And only Gibbs and Buescher are at risk, as Truex has a comfortable lead over Wallace.
Without a win to put him in the playoffs at Darlington, Dillon will repeat the worst season of his career in 2024 unless he turns things around late in the season. After qualifying for the playoffs five times from 2016 to 2022, Dillon was ranked 29th last season with just one top-5 and seven top-10 finishes. His win at Richmond is currently his only top-5 finish in 2024 and he has just three top-10 finishes with an average finish 1.4 spots worse than last season.
