How far is too far to win a Cup race? Decisions loom for NASCAR, drivers

RICHMOND, Va. — The line of acceptable racing contact has never been all that defined in racing.

Often it's termed as "we'll know it when we see it."

Well, what did people see Sunday night at Richmond Raceway?

They saw Austin Dillon run into the back of Joey Logano and then hook Denny Hamlin in the final turns for a spot in the playoffs.

"We're in the Chase," said Dillon's car owner and grandfather, Richard Childress, using the former name of the NASCAR playoffs. "I don't know where you're trying to draw the line."

NASCAR has created a playoff system where it promotes winning at pretty much all costs. If a driver who competes in all 26 regular-season races earns a win in any of those 26, the driver makes the playoffs as long as there aren't more winners than the 16 spots available in the playoff field.

In the playoffs, which features primarily three-race rounds, a playoff driver advances to the next round with a win in any of those three events.

So the system encourages a "wild, wild west" type of racing where drivers must go to the brink of what would be considered legal in the racing world.

"It's just the rules of the sport, right?" Dillon said following the controversial win. "It is what it is. Wins get you into the next round. I did what I had to do to cross the start-finish line first.

"As far as good for the sport, I heard we were trending No. 1 on Twitter right now."

Hamlin finished second, and the result didn't just impact his chance to earn some playoff points. It also could keep Bubba Wallace, who drives for the team Hamlin co-owns, out of the playoffs as now at most three winless drivers can make the playoffs.

"I hate the words — and sometimes the media says it, ‘He did what he had to do,'" Hamlin said. "That