In the championship format of old, the storyline from Richmond would have been very different. We would have spent this week talking about how Austin Dillon has struggled through a very difficult season, but he was able to find one bright spot with a surprisingly strong run at Richmond. Maybe he would have come away with a race win. No matter the outcome, it wouldn't have changed the fact that he was outside of the top 30 in points, and winning wouldn't magically fix his season.
However, we don't live in that reality. In the modern era, a win means you're in the playoffs, and a driver is guaranteed to finish 16th or higher in points. When the points are reset at the end of the regular season, anything can happen. Not every driver would have done what Dillon did at Richmond, no matter their position in the points, but there's no doubt that Dillon only went that far because of the current format.
When going for it goes too far
After Richmond, Denny Hamlin quickly blamed the format, focusing on how it incentivizes winning over everything else. "We're trying to manufacture these types of moments and when we do it and we look silly like tonight ... your sport has mud on its face. But I think there's probably people in Daytona (NASCAR headquarters) who love this shit and they're the ones who are sending this sport backwards."
During a press conference at Michigan, Bubba Wallace didn't hesitate when asked who was at fault for what transpired last weekend.
“(It's) the system’s fault," declared Wallace, who is right on the edge of making the playoffs. "They created this system where you put it on the line, but at the same time, we always say will you wreck your mother to win? 'Of course, yeah.' No, you wouldn’t. I wouldn’t. You do everything in your power under the respectful line to win the race."
Wallace also took issue with those who try to compare Dillon's move to other contact-filled battles for the win, signaling out the 2018 battle for the win at Martinsville between Joey Logano and Martin Truex Jr.
"Now people want to relate Logano and Truex at Martinsville the same as what happened to Richmond. Who are these people? He moved him out of the way, knocked him out of the groove, and they drag-raced to the line. Yeah, he may have plowed him, but he didn’t spin him out, wreck him and didn’t give him a chance to finish. He finished second. Where Truex messed up is he shouldn’t have let him get to his back bumper. Kept him on the outside. It is nuts how we can relate that to this and this to that."
The 23XI Racing driver, who was suspended for intentionally wrecking Kyle Larson during the 2022 season, went on to talk about respect. He called the Cup Series a "self-policing field." Even when NASCAR holds back on penalizing aggressive driving, the veteran drivers have their own way of putting people back in their place.
"You have to earn and respect your way in the Cup level ... If the officials don’t take care of you, we know how to take care of you," concluded Wallace.
