Jeff Burton weighs in on Austin Cindric's incident with Austin Dillon

Jeff Burton provided some thoughts on the incident between Austin Cindric and Austin Dillon at Gateway over the weekend.

For context, it seemed as if Cindric purposefully wrecked Dillon late in the race, and the driver of the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, as well as Richard Childress himself immediately called for Cindric to be punished.

“I was wrecked intentionally by him,” stated Dillon, following Gateway. “Hooked right, just like Chase [Elliott] and Denny [Hamlin] and Bubba [Wallace’s] deal. He better be suspended next week.”

While Dillon and Childress compared it to the wrecks that resulted in suspensions for Bubba Wallace and Chase Elliott, many in NASCAR aren’t willing to go that far. Evidently, neither is Burton. The NASCAR veteran turned NBC Sports analyst took some time to analyze the wreck, and point out some key differences from his perspective.

“I didn’t see what led up to all that,” Burton responded, asked if Cindric intentionally wrecked Dillon. “I don’t know the history. Like in the other two incidents where we did see drivers get suspended, we saw it all right in front of our eyes. We saw a move, and then a reaction to that move. And it was like, ‘Hey, he did this because of that.’ I don’t know what happened before, or if anything. I don’t know what happened, so it’s hard for me to say it was retaliatory, because I don’t know the whole story.

“I will say on a broader picture, like this is why NASCAR really doesn’t want to get involved in making penalties. They really don’t. They really would rather the drivers would work it out for themselves. Because now you’ve made a stance, and you said if you intentionally hook somebody, you intentionally do something to endanger them, there’s going to be a penalty and it’s going to be stiff. Which I support. But at the same time, it has to be clear and simple that there was an intentional act, and it’s hard to always judge intention. Drivers make mistakes.”

It looks like Burton is of the mindset that Cindric simply made a mistake, and wasn’t looking to take Dillon out of the race. Additionally, Burton makes a good point of the lead-in missing from the incident, which certainly works against Dillon and Childress.

Alas, all eyes will be on Austin Dillon and Austin Cindric, as many wait and see if their rivalry continues this weekend at Sonoma. Perhaps NASCAR will let these two drivers handle it on the track instead of opting to suspend one if something goes down.