At Michigan International Road, it was close to silver for RCR after their tough season. But it took a turn for the gray storm clouds, as Austin Dillon won the FireKeepers Casino 400 but was disqualified from the finals due to a crash that occurred during the race.
The last lap of the last lap was where most of the action was, As Dillon looked to beat Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin to win the race. NASCAR officials took time to punish Dillon, but the decision was eventually overturned. RCR is coming off a tough season and this win will give them the first drive to the finals. However, according to many NASCAR insiders, the decision killed the opportunity, and rightfully so.
After all, driver safety is one of the most important things, and Dillon’s actions put him at risk. Many media outlets and talk shows have commented on NASCAR’s decision.
Instead, Kevin Harvick found the best person to answer the question: the head of NASCAR. The latest episode of Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour featured guest Steve Phelps diving into last week’s events and talking about Austin Dillon’s performance.
Harvick saw the opportunity and asked Phelps about the penalty given to Dillon: “You guys obviously decided at the end of that race that we were going to see the penalties and everything. What was that decision like internally, and how tough was it?” Steve Phelps was direct as he revealed, ”
We don’t want to penalize drivers. We don’t want to have cars that do not pass tech.” Explaining the reason why NASCAR needs to penalize the drivers, he said, “There is a responsibility if you are going to be fair about the rules you put in place and then officiate.”
The discussion carried on to try to figure out what type of driving is acceptable and what causes fines when Phelps explained, “If you hook someone going 170 miles per hour on a mile-and-a-half track, you have crossed the line.”
It’s hard to hide from the data,” the president explained before saying that at Michigan, “there was a line that was crossed, in our [NASCAR’s] opinion.” When the officials made their decision, even Phelps had a say in it after looking at the data, as he explained that the team believed that their call was correct. Despite being the president of NASCAR, Phelps explained, ”
If we don’t believe that they’ve got it significantly wrong, we will not overturn their decision.” Ultimately, he stated that it was the decision of the officials, and despite being the president, he would not try to overrule their call.
