NASCAR star suggests controversial win should be STRIPPED

Austin Dillon's NASCAR Cup Series rival Denny Hamlin has suggested that the powers that be should strip Dillon of his controversial race victory.

Dillon won the Cook Out 400 at Richmond, his first victory in over two years, but his jubilance was marred by two last lap incidents.

READ MORE: NASCAR VP refuses to rule out VACATING controversial win

Firstly, the 34-year-old ran deep into a corner, knocking Joey Logano into the wall and wrecking his race.

This act appeared to be deliberate, and when Dillon also then turned in on Hamlin and took him out of race-winning contention, questions were raised as to whether the eventual victor had crossed the line with his actions.

Dillon win to be stripped?

With his victory, Dillon has made it through to the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, but not without being called a 'piece of cr**' by Logano, who criticised him for a 'chicken s*** move'.

On top of this, NASCAR senior vice president Elton Sawyer suggested the sport would look at the incidents and decide what action to take, failing to rule out vacating the victory.

Now, Hamlin has suggested that such a huge call would be 'warranted' given the way Dillon claimed the race win.

"Yes, 100% of them would say that was warranted," he told the Actions Detrimental podcast when asked if other NASCAR drivers would agree Dillon's victory should be stripped.

"I can’t imagine any other driver saying ‘well, yeah, the way he did it there to get in the playoffs, that was fair’, nobody would say that was fair.

"We have these rules in every other series because they know you cannot just open it up to allow these drivers to do whatever it takes, crash someone, hurt someone – you can do whatever you want. You cannot allow that, not as the top form of motorsports.

"The sanctioning body need to be big boys and needs to make big-boy calls. You can’t just not make calls on blatant, intentional wrecking."

When asked what sanction Dillon should be given, he replied: "It’s up to them. But there’s no monetary, no points fine that does anything. You have to do something to say you cannot intentionally crash someone for a win.

"That was not a racing move. It is blatant and intentional wrecking that goes against the rules – times two. If you care about integrity of the sport, and you want to see us taken seriously, it would be hard to look away. So, stop it right now before it gets there.

"If we allow egregious acts then you open the door for this to happen again. You have to put the bumpers on us, because clearly we’re not thinking straight as drivers, which is why we have rules in place to keep us within the roadway here."

READ MORE: NASCAR champion issues destiny verdict as IndyCar return teased

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