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Austin Dillon said Saturday that he has not spoken with Denny Hamlin or Joey Logano after his last-lap run-in with them last weekend at Richmond Raceway, saying that he was optimistic about the team’s appeal of penalties that stripped his victory of an automatic spot in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. That appeal, NASCAR officials confirmed, will be held Wednesday.
Dillon’s No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet will start 10th in Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 (2;30 p.m. ET, USA, NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM) after rain washed away qualifying at Michigan International Speedway. He has three more opportunities to clinch a postseason berth in the trio of regular-season races remaining. A fourth opportunity rests in the hands of the National Motorsports Appeals Panel.
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“We’re going to go out there and give it all we got again,” Dillon told NBC Sports from the Cup Series garage at Michigan. “And with the current situation, we need to win. Hopefully, after our appeal, we get back in the playoffs, where we deserve to be, and just excited about what we’ve got going on at RCR.”
Dillon’s victory last weekend was marked by a chain reaction of contact in the final set of corners at Richmond Raceway, where Dillon’s No. 3 Chevrolet nudged as both Logano’s No. 22 Ford and Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota to get to the checkered flag first. After a thorough review, NASCAR officials issued penalties Wednesday that allowed the win to stand but did not let it count toward his playoff eligibility. Officials also suspended spotter Brandon Benesch for three races and docked Dillon and the No. 3 team 25 points in each of the corresponding standings.
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The Richard Childress-owned organization indicated that it would appeal the penalties, roughly an hour after the ruling was announced. Saturday, Dillon was careful not to tip the team’s hand regarding its strategy for the appeal, which will be heard at the NASCAR Research & Development Center.
“Truthfully, I think the best thing I can say right now is we’ve got an appeal process,” Dillon said. “I think this entire sport … I’ve got to be careful with what I give out right now for the appeal process because it’s going to be like a trial. It really is, and wish everybody could see it. 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 — couple extra podcasts than he normally does, and I also listened to his podcast when he talked about the appeal process and how tough it is. So I’m going to do my best to get RCR in the playoffs, where they need to be, where they deserve to be currently, and from there, I will give all the media and everybody else my exact feelings after that’s all said and done and over with.
“But man, I can’t say enough about NASCAR. They’ve given me everything I’ve got in this life, even my wife and kids. I met my wife at the race track, so I’m thankful for winning races. We’ve got a win this year, which feels really good, and yeah, we just keep going and seeing what comes in the next couple weeks.”
This story will be updated.
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