In the span of two laps a week ago at Richmond Raceway, everything about the battle for the NASCAR playoffs changed. And then, nothing changed at all.
Austin Dillon had gone from outside the top 30 in the points standings to the No. 13 seed in the playoffs, doing so by force after taking out Joey Logano in the final corner of overtime after Logano had passed him on the final restart, then taking Denny Hamlin out coming to the checkered flag for good measure. It was the “winner-take-all” mentality of NASCAR’s playoffs era, and the way it can make drivers throw away their ethics, taken to its logical extreme — until NASCAR officials decided it wouldn’t be tolerated.
After Wednesday’s news that Dillon would be penalized for his winning moves at Richmond and that his victory would not be permissible to qualify him for the playoffs, four open spots on the playoff grid continue to remain with three races to go in the regular season. The fight for playoff positions now proceeds to the two-mile Michigan International Speedway, a battle sees the defending Michigan winner — Chris Buescher — fighting for his season as he holds a tiebreaker over Ross Chastain for the last available playoff spot.