Jeff Burton reacts to Austin Dillon, unprecedented NASCAR penalty

The fallout continues after NASCAR announced unprecedented penalties against Austin Dillon after the ending to last week’s race at Richmond. He lost his automatic playoff spot he clinched with the win and was also docked 25 points, and the reaction is still coming in.

The latest is from Jeff Burton, the former NASCAR great who now works as an analyst for NBC. He pointed out the two different conversations that can be had at the same time, but ultimately said NASCAR got it right.

Burton and Dustin Long broke down the situation, which came about after Dillon wrecked Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano on the final turn of the final lap last week. The 21-time Cup Series winner said he feels for Dillon, but pointed out the tough decision NASCAR had to make.

“It’s a difficult situation, right?” Burton said. “I mean, this system that we have – not only in how you make the playoffs and how you transfer through the playoffs and how you win a championship, but also when you put that in context with what it means for how you get paid next year, how you get paid this year. This is a massive decision. It just is. And this system puts drivers in the position to do things like this. It puts them in the situation where they have to do things that they’re uncomfortable with. And so then, that requires NASCAR to police it. And it requires them, in my eyes, in a way more than ever in the history of the sport, to draw the lines.

“Clearly, I think when you watch all that, I have sympathy for Austin because he’s out there trying to win a race. He’s out there trying to get himself in the playoffs, he’s out there doing everything that you ask your race car driver to do as a car owner. It’s just, it was over the line. And I think everybody that watched it – well, not everybody because nobody agrees on everything – but I’ll tell you the majority of people that watched it said, okay, if this isn’t over the line, then what is? What is over the line?”

When it comes to determining what’s too far, Burton said NASCAR needed to see the whole board. That starts by looking at the data, and because there were two wrecks involved, it led to the decision to take Dillon’s playoff spot away and suspend his spotter.

However, Burton said the bigger impact of the decision is that it doesn’t just affect Dillon and Richard Childress Racing. It affects the entire playoff field, as evidenced by the updated playoffs standings.

“NASCAR, they’ve got to take a step back and they have to look at all the data,” Burton said. “They have to look at all the information. When they looked at it, they’re like look, in totality, all of these things together, it wasn’t just the 22, it wasn’t just the 11. It was those two things together. His spotter was on the radio. He was saying wrecking. All that stuff, collectively, adds up. And so NASCAR made the decision.

“I think they struggled with it. I think that the reason they struggled with it is because not only are you penalizing Richard Childress Racing and Austin Dillon. You’re affecting the entire field, and you’re affecting a lot of things. So you have to get it right. At the end of the day, I think they got it right. But I also have sympathy for Austin Dillon and his team. Two things can be true at the same time.”