BROOKLYN, Mich. — BROOKLYN, Mich. (AP) — Austin Dillon has no regrets over his aggressive actions that triggered last-lap wrecks for Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin before Dillon went on to win at Richmond Raceway and had NASCAR later revoke his automatic spot in the playoffs.
“You don’t hate the player,” Dillon said Saturday, a day before the Firekeepers 400 was scheduled to run at Michigan International Speedway. “You hate the game.”
The game — or the system as many Cup Series drivers call it — creates high-stakes, risk-reward racing for competitors needing to win to secure a spot in the 16-car playoffs.
Dillon was, and still is, one of those desperate drivers, and NASCAR determined he “crossed a line” and went too far.
The checkered flag seemed out of reach last weekend for Dillon, who started Richmond No. 32 in the standings, until the final seconds when he spun Logano out of the way and sent Hamlin into the wall.
Three days later, NASCAR announced Dillon committed “ actions detrimental to stock car auto racing ” in its decision to take him out of a spot in the 16-driver field.
Dillon and the Richard Childress Racing No. 3 team were docked points in both the drivers’ and owners’ standings, dropping him from 26th to 31st in the driver standings.
Brandon Benesch, Dillon’s spotter, was suspended for three races for yelling “wreck him!” over the radio as the driver raced with Hamlin down the stretch.
RCR is appealing NASCAR’s decision.
NASCAR, meanwhile, was wired $50,000 from Logano to settle a fine for smoking his tires on pit road as he drove by Dillon and his team.
Logano suggested what Dillon did to him at Richmond was akin to someone breaking in his house, stealing his stuff and dancing with the ill-gotten possessions on the front lawn.
“What would you do?” Logano said. “I was not going to do anything to hurt anybody, but I’m not a robot. I was emotional about it, rightfully so.”
Hamlin wished the ruling was made in real time Sunday night, but added that he was satisfied with NASCAR’s decision.
“I saw something that I’ve never seen before last week, and we saw an unprecedented penalty for it,” Hamlin said.
Hamlin will start on the pole Sunday after rain washed out qualifying.
There are 12 drivers with a spot secured in the playoffs, leaving four spots open with three races remaining.
NASCAR’s decision to revoke Dillon’s spot in the postseason gave a dose of hope for drivers such as Bubba Wallace, who currently holds a position in the playoff picture that would give him a spot based on points even if he doesn’t win.
“There are still four spots left instead of the three,” Wallace said. “Definitely a relief there, but it is still going to be a dogfight.
“We are still not safe but there is an extra spot open now.”
Erik Jones, who drives the No. 43 Toyota, signed a multiyear contract extension this week with Legacy Motor Club to make his homecoming even sweeter.
“Looking at the landscape and where everything was at, what was possibly available and what other opportunities were out there, none of them were enticing enough for me that made me want to make a move,” said Jones, who is from Byron, Michigan, a town with about 500 residents. “Unless it was going to be a huge leap to a currently a race-winning, championship-contending team, I just wasn’t interested.”
Defending race champion Chris Buescher, who is at No. 16 in the playoff picture, extended Ford’s winning streak to nine at Michigan last year.
The manufacturer has the longest streak of success, dating to Clint Bowyer’s victory in 2018, at a track that has hosted 106 Cup races since 1969.
Top-ranked driver Kyle Larson is the BetMGM Sportsbook favorite to win Sunday, or Monday if rain pushes the race past the weekend for a second straight year.
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AP NASCAR: https://apnews.com/hub/nascar-racing
There was no bigger storyline going into Auburn’s Sweet 16 game against Michigan than the frontcourt battle.
Both teams like to play with two traditional centers, something rarely seen in modern college basketball. Michigan’s frontcourt of Danny Wolf and Vladislav Goldin was slightly bigger than Auburn’s pairing of Johni Broome and Dylan Cardwell.
Despite that, Auburn dominated the glass, grabbing 19 offensive rebounds, which helped the Tigers pull out a 78-65 win.
Those rebounds were especially important as Auburn’s offense struggled to find any flow or efficiency early in the game. The Tigers shot 32.4% from the field in the first half and turned the ball over 10 times.
However, Auburn outrebounded Michigan 29-17 and went into the break with nine second chance points compared to Michigan’s two. It continued in the second half has Auburn finished the game with 21 second chance points.
When Cardwell, Auburn’s starting center, was asked in the locker room after the game how Auburn gained such an advantage on the glass, his answer was as candid as it gets.
“I have no idea,” Cardwell said. “The grace of God? I don’t know.”
Cardwell said it was mentioned briefly on Auburn’s scouting report that Michigan might not be a great defensive rebounding team, but its size would still make it hard for Auburn to dominate on the glass the way it did.
Michigan came into the game ranking near the middle of Division I in defensive rebound percentage, but Auburn did a good job most of the game of keeping the Wolverines off the offensive glass too.
Michigan rebounded 26% of its misses Friday night, seven points lower than its season average.
“We have the best frontline in the country,” Broome said after the game. “We take pride in each matchup that we go against and we’re gonna bring it every night.”
Cardwell and Broome both suggested that the advantage on the glass came from Auburn’s will and effort more than anything schematic or overcomplicated.
“I would say that we wanted it more. This team, overall, we’re in the last year of college. The biggest thing we say in the team room and the locker room is we want to leave the court with no regrets,” Cardwell said. “Now, we can’t control our shots. We can’t control our free throws. We can’t control our layups. We can’t control a lot of things. But we can control our effort and energy.”
The rebounding advantage helped guarantee Auburn’s seniors at least one more game together, and the next one will be with a Final Four berth on the line.
Auburn’s Elite Eight game against Michigan State is scheduled to tip off at 4:05 p.m. Sunday. The game will be televised on CBS.
Peter Rauterkus covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @peter_rauterkus or email him at prauterkus@al.com
In this previously submitted photo, Consumers Energy employees work on power lines that supply Caberfae Peaks ski resort near Cadillac in Northern Michigan. The energy company was preparing to deploy hundreds of crews to restore power amid any outages during this weekend’s rough weather. Provided by Caberfae Peaks
ATLANTA — For a period of time this season, Michigan basketball was in contention to win the Big Ten regular season championship. And they hoisted a trophy after winning the Big Ten Tournament.
But head coach Dusty May says this team, for many reasons, has become a team with a chip on its shoulder.
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