Getty Austin Dillon practices at World Wide Technology Raceway.
Suspensions have been the talk of NASCAR since the Coca-Cola 600, and this trend will likely continue heading toward Sonoma Raceway. Austin Dillon has called for Austin Cindric to receive a suspension after a crash at World Wide Technology Raceway.
The driver of the No. 3 made comments to Fronstretch after exiting the infield care center at the Illinois track. He did not mince words as he said that the Team Penske driver had intentionally wrecked him. Dillon then compared the incident to Chase Elliott wrecking Denny Hamlin and Bubba Wallace wrecking Kyle Larson while saying that Cindric had “better be suspended next week.”
Team owner Richard Childress had some comments of his own about the incident at World Wide Technology Raceway. He said that the wreck was payback while answering a question about Kyle Busch’s impact on the organization.
“Well, [Busch has] helped us all around,” Childress said. “Number one, he’s winning races, showing we can win races. He’s helped Austin a whole lot. Austin has had some really good runs. He had drove up to about 10th until the 2 car wrecked him in there on purpose, sort of a payback.”
Cindric faced questions about the wreck after he secured a 13th-place finish. He declined to provide comment. Though he later told Ford Performance that he had some things to clean up.
The Incident Occurred During the Final Stage
The incident in question occurred as the drivers were trying to put together strong finishes at the 1.25-mile track outside of St. Louis. Dillon and Stenhouse were battling for 12th place on Lap 219 when they made contact and hit the wall in Turn 1.
The replay showed that this incident actually started after contact from Cindric. The driver of the No. 2 Team Penske Ford made contact with the right rear of Dillon’s No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, which turned it sideways into Stenhouse’s No. 47.
The two Chevrolet Camaros wrecked against the outside wall while Cindric move to the inside and continued moving forward. This incident initially brought out the caution, but NASCAR ultimately displayed the red flag to make repairs to the Turn 1 wall.
Unlike Elliott or Wallace, Cindric didn’t appear to blatantly turn left into Dillon’s right rear. He certainly moved to the left, but it was more subtle than the other two recent examples of intentional hooks.
Whether NASCAR penalizes Cindric remains to be seen. The sanctioning body will have to first decide to take a look at the incident, and then there will have to be an examination of SMT data and other applicable pieces of information. If there is a penalty, NASCAR will announce it on Tuesday or Wednesday with its weekly report.
Another Driver Weighed in About the Incident
GettyAustin Dillon watches qualifying at WWT Raceway.
Cindric declined to comment on the crash while Dillon and Childress both said that the incident was intentional. Only Cindric has the answer, but there was another driver that weighed in after the crash.
Stenhouse provided comments after exiting the Cup Series race. He lamented the fact that he went from being on the verge of his eighth straight top-15 finish to ending the day in the infield care center.
“Our No. 47 NOS Energy Drink Chevy was really good all day,” Stenhouse said after the race. “We kept our track position just like we wanted to. We got stage points and I felt like we had a top-eight or so car, which was a big difference from last year.
“Obviously, we’re striving to be better everywhere. We had a really good streak going of really good runs. It looked like the No. 2 just, for some reason, right-reared the No. 3 and took both of us Chevy guys out, so that’s a bummer.”