Ty Dillon reacts to Austin Cindric penalty from COTA, lack of suspension

Last week at COTA, Austin Cindric turned Ty Dillon around in retaliation. NASCAR deemed it worthy of a penalty, but not suspension. In the past on high-speed ovals, officials have suspended drivers for a race for right-rear hooks.

With NASCAR deciding on a 50-point, $50,000 penalty, is everyone involved happy with the decision? Ty Dillon was sure that Cindric would get suspended for a week.

Given the speed of the wreck, the result of the wreck, and the finish of the race – NASCAR didn’t feel a suspension was needed. Still, Dillon expected it to happen.

“I was expecting a one-race suspension,” Dillon said, via Jeff Gluck of The Athletic. “I’m glad they did something though. I think 50 points and $50,000 is probably enough to make him think about doing something like that again. But I think a one-race suspension is what most of us expected. They set a standard a couple years ago.”

As far as NASCAR’s explanation about speed and being a road course, that doesn’t sit right with him either. Ty Dillon thinks that it should be a “black and white” rule.

“That’s where maybe NASCAR gets themselves in a little bit of trouble, is when you try to play in gray areas of what’s fast enough. … We’ve just got to [do] a better job of just making those calls black and white and setting a little bit better standard.”

Ty Dillon expected a suspension, did NASCAR get it right?

In the first few weeks of the season, we have heard from Mike Forde on the Hauler Talk podcast about how NASCAR takes every incident as a unique situation. No two incidents are the same, right?

So, I’m not sure that we can get a black-and-white rule like Ty Dillon wants in this situation. Going 180 at Charlotte or Las Vegas and hooking someone is much different than spinning someone out on a road course coming out of the slowest corner of the track. It just is.

Austin Cindric should not have hooked Dillon. It’s not a good move and not a good look no matter what the ultimate result is afterward. However, his path to the playoffs is now a one-way street. He likely can’t point himself into the postseason now and will have to win a race instead.

Kaulig Racing president Chris Rice didn’t like the ruling. Ty Dillon didn’t like the ruling. But I think everyone is going to be just fine moving forward even without a Cindric suspension.