NASCAR announced it has penalized Austin Cindric after he wrecked Ty Dillon at the beginning of the Cup series race at Circuit of the Americas (COTA).
After getting run wide and off the track, Cindric retaliated against Dillon by hooking him in the right rear and spinning him around.
Austin Cindric sends Ty Dillon into a spin. We stay green.@AlwaysRaceDay pic.twitter.com/bj51S4moP4
— Mr Matthew CFB (@MrMatthew_CFB) March 2, 2025
NASCAR announced it fined Cindric $50,000 and docked him 50 driver points as well. This point penalty dropped Cindric from 11th to 34th in the standings.
NASCAR’s Managing Director of Racing Communications Mike Forde explained why Cindric was not suspended given Bubba Wallace received a suspension after wrecking Kyle Larson at Las Vegas in 2022 and Chase Elliott received one after wrecking Denny Hamlin at Charlotte in 2023. While discussing the penalty during the most recent episode of Hauler Talk, he said, “The reason we landed on points and fine is that we take every situation, every violation as its own unique incident. … In this case we did feel that it was significantly different than the previous two. And the reasons are, you look at it, it is at a road course, lower speeds, tight confines to begin with, and the result didn’t even draw a caution flag. … Those were really the reasons we chose to err on the side of letting him race this weekend at Phoenix, going with a fine and a significant driver points penalty.”
He later added, “If we suspended him the punishment wouldn’t have fit the crime, it was probably going to be too severe of a punishment.”
NASCAR also suspended jackman Brandon Johnson and front tire changer Blaine Anderson for Kyle Larson’s No. 5 car after he lost a right-front wheel after a pit stop toward the end of Stage 2 at COTA. The Hendrick team will replace Johnson with Eric Ludwig and Anderson with Jafar Hall for the upcoming race at Phoenix.
What do you make of this penalty?
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