Elton Sawyer not ruling out a NASCAR penalty for Austin Dillon amid contentious Richmond win

Elton Sawyer has jeopardized Austin Dillon's maiden 2024 Cup Series win, courtesy of the latter's final lap wreck with Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin. The Senior VP of competition in NASCAR gave his take on the incident and outlined the possibility of a penalty which, if applicable, will be awarded on Tuesday.

NASCAR marked its return after the mid-season break at the Richmond Raceway. Denny Hamlin is the five-time winner at the 0.750-mile oval and set the fastest qualifying lap, entering the 408-lap dash as a contender for the win.

On the other hand, Dillon kicked off his run from sixth place and ran in the top 10 during both stages, finishing seventh and fifth, respectively. Moreover, he led the overtime restart but Logano passed the former in his #22 Ford and took the white flag as leader.

However, as the pack entered the final turn, the Richard Childress Racing driver wrecked out the Team Penske driver, and, before claiming his maiden 2024 Cup win, he also bumped into the Joe Gibbs Racing driver.

Shortly after the 23rd Cup Series weekend got done and dusted, Elton Sawyer opined on the final lap chaos birthed by Austin Dillon.

"Our sport has been a contact sport for a long time. We always hear, 'Where's the line?' and 'Did someone cross the line?' I would say that the last lap, it was awful close to the line. We'll take a look at all the available resources from audio to video, we'll listen to the spotter, we'll listen to crew chiefs and drivers, and if anything rises to a level that we feel like we need to penalize, then we'll do that on. Tuesday," the VP of competition said via Bob Pockrass on X.

So far, no penalty has been handed to Austin Dillon and his playoff spot stands secure.

"He'll pay for the repercussions" Denny Hamlin warns Austin Dillon for payback amid NASCAR's "no real officiating"

After starting from the pole, Denny Hamlin scored second and third-place finishes in Stages 1 and 2, respectively, and had a shot at claiming his fourth win this season. He has three victories, so far- at Bristol Motor Speedway, Richmond Raceway, and Dover Motor Speedway. Had the JGR driver grabbed the Cook Out 400 win, he would've crept closer to bagging his first regular season title since debuting in 2005 at the Kansas Speedway.

When Austin Dillon took out Logano, Hamlin became the automatic leader. But that didn't last more than a few seconds as the RCR driver wrecked the #11 Toyota also. Though the JGR driver saved himself from a possibly worse result and finished 2nd, he wasn't happy with the former's move.

"He'll have to pay repercussions down the line for this and you know but it's so worth it from his standpoint, because there's no guardrails or rules that say don't do that. And there's no one in the tower that has any problem with it. So we're never ever gonna get taken seriously as a sport because we have no real officiating," Hamlin said via Bob Pockrass on X (1:00).

Hamlin is disappointed because of the absence of 'real officiating' while Austin Dillon cherished his first win after a two-year hiatus and the subsequent entry into the playoffs.