NASCAR insider 'would be surprised' if Austin Dillon's penalty is overturned

Austin Dillon and Richard Childress Racing’s appeal of the penalties handed down by NASCAR after last Sunday’s race at Richmond will be heard Wednesday.

The National Motorsports Appeals Panel will decide to either uphold, modify or rescind the penalty of Dillon being revoked of his automatic playoff berth and docked 25 points for intentionally wrecking Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin on the final lap to take the checkered flag.

Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic discussed the upcoming appeal on “The Teardown” podcast Monday, and after gathering some information, Bianchi said he would be “surprised if this is overturned.”

“It’s gonna be fascinating,” Bianchi said. “Had this appeal been taking place a year and a half ago before NASCAR revamped the appeal process last spring after the Hendrick penalties and the Kaulig penalties, I think RCR going into this would probably be feeling they have a good chance. Since then though, it’s kind of gone NASCAR’s way. And I think that’s reading the room and talking to some folks. The consensus is that I would be surprised if this is overturned.”

As Bianchi mentioned, NASCAR made changes to the appeal process in April 2023 after two separate appeals from Hendrick and Kaulig yielded different results.

The most notable changes were as follows:

“The Appeals Panel [and Final Appeal Officer] may not completely remove any element of the originally assessed penalty provided in the Penalty Notice as defined in Rule Book Section 10.5.2 Determination of Penalties; modifications to a penalty are limited to the minimum and maximum ranges as listed in the Rule Book.”

“NASCAR shall have the right to publish any decision of the Appeals Panel/FAO, including without limitation, the names of the parties involved and the Appeals Panel/FAO justification for modifying or rescinding a Penalty.”

Austin Dillon optimistic about appeal chances after controversial Richmond win

Dillon and RCR appear to face an uphill climb, but Dillon remains optimistic.

“I am. I feel pretty good about it,” Austin Dillon said Saturday. “You know I think Denny Hamlin has a podcast about the appeal process. He lays it out pretty well in how the appeal usually works. And I think that is why he was very forthcoming early in the week on his opinion of everything. Because the appeals process isn’t easy. But we will do a good job on our side to try and cover all of our bases. And see what the outcome really is.”

Bianchi, meanwhile, is giving Dillon and RCR just a 10% chance at winning their appeal.

“It depends who’s on the panel,” Bianchi said. “That’s the big thing is who do you get on that panel. If you get a former driver, how do they interpret the code and that kind of thing. And the fine line of what this constitutes. I would say 10%. Because I think there is a way you could argue if you’re RCR like, ‘Hey, we’ve seen other moments last lap, other contact, that kind of thing where this has been acceptable. Why is this now not.’ I don’t know if you can make that case. But I think that is the avenue to make that case. But again, I think 90% it’s gonna go to NASCAR. I think it gets heavily tilted towards them.”