"We're in the entertainment business now": Mark Martin reflects on NASCAR's controversial finish at Richmond 

Former NASCAR driver Mark Martin recently shared his thoughts on the controversial end to the Richmond Cup race which saw RCR's Austin Dillon take out Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin on his way to take the win. Following his victory, the 34-year-old faced backlash for his move on the two veteran Cup drivers in the last lap.

However, Mark Martin, felt that the #3 driver's actions were a product of the sport's current environment, but also voiced his disapproval of the incident from an objective point of view. Speaking during a recent episode of the "Dirty Mo Media" podcast, Martin said:

"There's been a lot of money coming into it and it's given a lot of crew guys an opportunity to be on NASCAR teams that weren't before. But in a lot of ways when you bring in the big money, you have to provide entertainment. And that's what, Sunday night was entertaining to me, but race-wise I don't approve of that."

Mark Martin admitted that though he gets excited watching the on-track tussle between the cars, these aspects of the sport remain subjective in nature.

"When you have bump-and-run and all this stuff going on at a racetrack, running somebody high, if it's your guy that gets the short end of the stick, you're mad as hell. But if your guy is giving it, you ain't so mad you know? So I feel like we're in the entertainment business now instead of the sport," Martin added.

It's worth mentioning that Austin Dillon was penalized by NASCAR on Wednesday. As per the ruling, Dillon kept the win and the prize money, but his playoff eligibility was taken away.

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Why NASCAR took so long to decide on the Austin Dillon penalty

After the race on Sunday at Richmond, NASCAR's Vice President of Competition, Elton Sawyer suggested that they would go through the incident and decide whether a penalty could be imposed or not. It was initially expected that a decision would be announced on Tuesday.

However, NASCAR took one more day and announced the decision on Wednesday. Talking about the delay in the penalty announcement for Austin Dillon and Joey Logano, Elton Sawyer talked about the severity of the ruling and said (via "Sports Illustrated"):

"Obviously, the magnitude of this decision was and is huge so we felt it was very important that we get this right. Starting Sunday night, gathering all of the data. Working again on Monday, all day yesterday. Looking at all of the SMT data, looking at in-car cameras, obviously, the audio. Gathering all of those facts, the meetings that we needed," Sawyer said.

He claimed he understood the fan's frustrations and apologized for the time it took to arrive at a decision. But expressed hope for the future by saying that going forward, NASCAR would get to a place where they would be more on the spot with such decisions.

He reiterated that their biggest priority was to ensure an accurate and fair decision, as to make a bad decision in a split-second would've reflected poorly on the sport