Harrison Burton’s debut career Cup win at Daytona booked him a playoff berth for the first time in the premier tier. Before his shock last-lap pass on Kyle Busch, the 23-year-old stood dead last in the points standings, with an average finish of 25.3 in the previous 25 races of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series. After taking his Wood Brothers Racing #21 to victory lane for their 100th time, Burton became the 13th confirmed driver in the Round of 16 eliminators, aka playoffs, which will kick off at Atlanta on September 8th.

But Burton would’ve been the 14th driver to lock himself into the playoffs, had NASCAR never considered penalizing Austin Dillon’s controversial Richmond victory. The initial appeal by the RCR team to the National Motorsports Appeal Panel had little impact on their chances last Wednesday. However, as Dillon prepares to make one last plea to get that playoff spot back only days before the Southern 500, the man who should be particularly concerned is Bubba Wallace, and here’s why. 

Austin Dillon makes final plea to overturn Richmond penalties

Heading to Darlington next Sunday, the 23XI driver will be nearest to the playoff cutline, looking in from the outside. He finished P6 at the 2024 Coke Zero Sugar 400 and is now only 21 points away from that last unconfirmed spot currently claimed by Chris Buescher. To add to all his challenges, the biggest threat to Wallace’s playoff dreams, Ross Chastain, is only 6 points away from him in the playoff picture. Had Chastain achieved a better result than that P12 at Daytona, his current fortunes could’ve looked much different.

As it stands, Martin Truex Jr, Ty Gibbs, and Buescher are the three drivers tentatively sitting on the last three playoff spots up for grabs. If another surprise contender wins the Regular Season championship in Darlington next weekend, only MTJ & Gibbs of Joe Gibbs Racing would be mathematically eligible for the last two remaining eliminator berths. Considering the fact that Chastain, Gibbs, or Buescher don’t run inside the top-5 consistently, registering similar finishes or better in all three stages.

But as FOX journalist Bob Pockrass posted from his Twitter/X handle on

NASCAR docked Dillon 25 championship points following this infraction after reviews in the ensuing mid-week penalty. Brandon Benesch, his spotter, received an initial three-race suspension for overexcited calls over the radio, asking his driver to wreck the #22 of Joey Logano on the last lap. But the sport’s senior VP of Competitions, Elton Sawyer, had some contradicting thoughts about the incident in an immediate disclosure to the media following the race. He had said, “Historically, that hasn’t been our DNA to take race [wins] away, but that’s not to say that going forward this wouldn’t start to set a precedent, or do we have to look at it.”

With the penalties imposed, NASCAR had indeed ‘set a precedent,’ but Sawyer also agreed that “our sport has been a contact sport for a long time.” So, using Dillon’s penalty as the example to follow for future verdicts leaves a lot to the imagination for most viewing these developments from the outside. After carefully reviewing all the information, NASCAR determined Dillon’s actions as a violation of Section 12.3.2.1.b of the Rule Book. This clause states, “Race finishes must be unencumbered by violation(s) of the NASCAR Rules or other action(s) detrimental to stock car auto racing or NASCAR as determined in the sole discretion of NASCAR.”

For a sport that involves multiple stakeholders and does not hold all its assets under one centralized agency or corporation, issuing a penalty in its ‘sole discretion’ can open up plenty of discussions on decision-making legitimacy. After all, it is only human nature to suspect the unknown.

To penalize or not to penalize? That is the question.

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These few factors raise concerns about whether Dillon can find that defamed Richmond win playoff eligible again, after his last appeal before the Regular Season finale. Surely, it wasn’t the first or the last time an incident such as his has taken place in desperation for a shot at the championship in this highly debated playoff format.

Regardless, a panel of stock car experts including, Tom DeLoach, Kelly Housby, and Tommy Wheeler, rejected Dillon’s initial appeal last Wednesday, stating, “NASCAR represents elite motorsports and, as such, its drivers are expected to demonstrate exemplary conduct if its series’ championships are to be validated. In this case, the ‘line’ was crossed.” 

NASCAR’s Final Appeal Officer, Bill Mullis, also the owner of Langley Speedway, will hear the final appeal from Austin Dillon and Richard Childress Racing on Monday. But will the #3 team head to the playoffs at the end of it all when the decision’s finally official? That remains to be seen. But do you think Austin Dillon’s penalty deserves a reversal? Or will battling it out against guys like Bubba Wallace at Southern 500 give him the better shot? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.