Kauling Racing president fires back at critics with repair costs after Ty Dillon hooked by Austin Cindric

During Lap 4 of the NASCAR Cup Series race at COTA, Austin Cindric right rear-hooked Ty Dillon in retaliation. He’s been penalized. Cindric faced a $50,000 fine and 50 point penalty. But should he have faced a one-race suspension like drivers have in the past?

Right rear hooking another driver is one of the big no-nos in motorsports. In NASCAR, doing it on an oval, from short tracks to intermediates and superspeedways, is a massive offense.

Drivers have been injured and have died from getting hooked into walls at high speeds. So, in recent years, NASCAR has opted to suspend drivers for a race for these actions.

But what about a road course? Austin Cindric and Ty Dillon got into it, Cindric retaliated, and both drivers continued. Before Dillon hit the wall he made contact with Zane Smith, too. The race stayed green.

Austin Cindric sends Ty Dillon into a spin. We stay green.@AlwaysRaceDay pic.twitter.com/bj51S4moP4

— Mr Matthew CFB (@MrMatthew_CFB) March 2, 2025

In response to critics who say there wasn’t a lot of damage to Dillon’s car, Chris Rice, president of Kaulig Racing is firing back. He claims they now have a high repair bill after the race.

According to Pete Pistone of SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Rice reports the No. 10 car had six-figure damage after COTA. Should that have factored into the punishment and possible suspension of Austin Cindric for turning Ty Dillon?

For those who side on Cindric not being suspended because Dillon’s car “wasn’t severely damaged,” Kaulig President Chris Rice told us today on TMD there was six figure damage/repairs on the 10 car because of the incident @SiriusXMNASCAR

— Pete Pistone (@PPistone) March 6, 2025

A points penalty and fine seem fitting for this incident. There was no direct turn into the wall, the road course offered Ty Dillon, until the contact from Smith, a chance to correct. If that extra contact didn’t happen, he had a much better chance of staying out of the wall.

When I see that incident and compare it to Bubba Wallace and Kyle Larson at Las Vegas or Chase Elliott and Denny Hamlin at Charlotte, it doesn’t feel the same.

Austin Cindric given points fine for Ty Dillon incident

While Kaulig Racing and Ty Dillon are likely not thrilled with COTA and the penalty afterward, NASCAR did explain themselves this week. On the Hauler Talk podcast, Mike Forde, NASCAR managing director of racing communications, spoke about the penalty.

“The reason we landed on a points and fine – we take every situation, every violation as its own unique incident, and I know probably fans don’t love hearing that sentence, and it’s said a lot,” Forde said. “But it’s said because it has to be said. It’s said because it’s true. Sure, we do look at past instances to help inform us, educate ourselves on how we should handle each subsequent one. But each incident is very different. Maybe not very different but each is at least a little bit different and often times very different.

“In this case, we did feel it was significantly different than the previous two. And the reasons are, you look at it, it is at a road course (with) lower speed, tight confines to begin with and the result didn’t even draw a caution. Now, obviously, the caution flag doesn’t come out as quickly on road courses anyway, but that did not draw a caution. So, those were really the reasons why we chose to err on the side of letting him race this weekend in Phoenix.”

Is that explanation good enough? Should Ty Dillon and Kaulig be upset? At least NASCAR is trying to be open with these rulings.