Trading paint and bumping into opponents have long been part of the contact sport that NASCAR is famous for. In fact, in many ways, the identity of the sport is defined by the thrilling action of stock cars going door to door with each other. However, there is a fine line between hard racing and taking your rivals out of commission, and Austin Dillon crossed that line to clinch his win at Richmond Raceway.

Subsequently, NASCAR had no choice but to intervene and drop the hammer on Austin Dillon and Richard Childress Racing. While they allowed him to keep his win, they revoked his playoff qualification due to his deliberate actions in taking out two drivers during a last-lap carnage. Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin were the victims of Dillon’s desperate attempt to clinch a victory.

Ryan Blaney backs NASCAR’s stance after a controversial race finish at Richmond

Blaney is arguably one of the toughest race car drivers to compete against. He often goes aggressive on the offensive, and the same is true when he tries to fend off others to protect a lead. The perfect example of bump and run was by the Penske star last year during the championship race at Phoenix. He was door-to-door against Ross Chastain, battling for the lead, and he was successful in pulling off a bump and running to be the new race leader.

That is what hard racing should look like, and NASCAR certainly doesn’t mind that. But Austin Dillon’s intent was far from racing hard against his rivals to the finish. Rather, he intentionally sent them crashing into the wall with the sole purpose of getting to the finish line, no matter the outcome. But this desperation wasn’t justified, according to defending NASCAR Cup Series champ Blaney.

“Yeah, I mean, you’re in a desperate situation, but to me, that was kind of overkill. Like what are we getting to as a sport where that’s open? We’re all for hard racing; it’s been a contact sport for a long time, but I feel like that was just kind of a step over. It was just too excessive, too much to be really be like psyched up about.” Blaney said on the Happy Hour podcast.

However, he was put under the spotlight when asked, if he would’ve resorted to similar tactics in desperation to win a race. And his response certainly didn’t let his fans down.

Intentionally wrecking his rivals for a race win is not in Blaney’s DNA

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The Penske star was in a sort of similar situation to Austin Dillon. Not in terms of getting good results but always falling short of the winning result. It all started in the second race of the season at Atlanta, where he easily could’ve wrecked either Daniel Saurez or Kyle Busch on the corners to snatch a win. Rather, he raced clean, contributing to the most memorable race finishes in the history of NASCAR racing.

At Gateway, he had another heartbreak after his No. 12 Ford Mustang ran out of fuel in the final few laps of the race. But he was rewarded for his efforts in front of home support at Iowa Speedway, making his way into the playoffs. Next thing you know, he bagged his second win of the season at the Tricky Triangle, solidifying his defense of the championship trophy.

Adding on his thoughts on Dillon’s incident and answering the question about him using similar tactics, the Penske star opined, “No, I would never do that intentionally. You get into a guy; you don’t mean to spin him out, but you know then you hook a guy again another guy because you miss the corner so bad to get to a guy. I would like to say I wouldn’t do something like that.”

It’s not that Austin Dillon’s season is done and dusted by NASCAR’s verdict. He still has three races and a genuine shot to make the playoffs.