Sports
What message does Austin Dillon penalty send to NASCAR drivers?
BROOKLYN, Mich. — Bubba Wallace sat down at the Michigan International Speedway media center desk and smirked.
“Can only imagine what is going to be asked about,” Wallace said.
It was entirely obvious, of course. The topic in the garage Saturday was the same as it has been all week after Austin Dillon wrecked two drivers on the final lap to win at Richmond Raceway: What did people make of NASCAR’s decision to penalize Dillon, and what sort of message does that send?
Wednesday, after a couple of days of deliberation, NASCAR said it would allow Dillon to keep his victory but stripped the playoff eligibility that accompanies a typical win. Dillon went into Turn 4 on the final lap at Richmond and intentionally took out Joey Logano, then swerved and hooked Denny Hamlin into the wall.
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Drivers largely expressed satisfaction with NASCAR stepping in to make a call on what they viewed as over-the-line racing for the first time in the playoffs era, which began in 2004. Kyle Larson estimated “99 percent of the field” was happy with NASCAR’s decision to enforce a minimum driving standard.
“We have to determine what we’re going to be and how we’re going to be as a sport,” veteran Michael McDowell said. “Are we going to be ‘Boys, have at it’ and do anything you can to win a race and get your team into the playoffs? Or is there going to be sporting conduct and a code that says, ‘We want you to race hard, and we want you to go for it, but there’s a limit’?
“The line was crossed, and NASCAR responded correctly.”
Veteran driver Michael McDowell was pleased with NASCAR’s decision to penalize Austin Dillon. (David Yeazell / USA Today)
For the most part, drivers said the decision wouldn’t change how they raced. Wallace said the frequent boasts about how most of them would “wreck your mother to win” were actually hot air, and in reality “you do everything in your power under the respectful line to win a race.”
To wit, Erik Jones firmly declared: “I don’t race that way. I wouldn’t have done it. … It is really not in my playbook.”
Added Chris Buescher: “I know what I’m here to do, what I’m willing to do and what I’m comfortable with. Whatever the ruling — there may not be the most clarity there if you’re trying to put it on paper, but we understand what’s acceptable.”
On the other hand, some drivers understood why Dillon made his move. McDowell called it a “$3 million lap” in terms of the difference between qualifying for the playoffs and not, which is why Dillon launched his desperate attempt to win.
“If he makes that stick and everything goes good, it’s a big swing for his team and his partners,” McDowell said. “I don’t sit here being like, ‘Oh, that was stupid. That was uncalled for.’ I go, ‘I get it.’ Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t, and it just didn’t work.”
But the question remained: Do drivers know where the line is? NASCAR has yet to spell it out, other than to say Dillon was penalized due to the “totality” of his actions.
Hamlin said the line was clear: Cars battling and making contact because of close racing will be deemed OK, but intentionally wrecking the leader to win the race is not.
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Still, he added: “Sometimes balls and strikes aren’t totally clear. There is one right on the edge and you have to call it, but it is up to us to make the decision … to put ourselves in that position where it could be called one way or the other.”
The lack of specific reasoning as to why Dillon was penalized prompted Kyle Busch, Dillon’s Richard Childress Racing teammate, to say the rule isn’t clear at all.
“They all want to say we know where the line is; we don’t know where the line is,” Busch said. “Logano flat out wrecked me at Vegas for third place in the exact fashion that (Dillon) knocked him out of the way for a win. That’s why he got punched in the face (in a viral 2017 fight).”
Team Penske’s Austin Cindric said he understood why officials had yet to spell out the specifics — and what actions could stop just short of crossing that line — with an appeal pending from Dillon’s team Wednesday. Cindric said he hoped NASCAR would clarify its decision in the coming weeks.
But there’s a chance that clarity will never come. Brad Keselowski said that while it would be nice for NASCAR to able to spell out the rules for every potential situation in a perfect world, the reality is something new will always pop up and makes it challenging for NASCAR to predict the future.
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In that regard, Keselowski said officials “made as good of an attempt as you could make to draw a line in the sand.”
“We want them to be proactive and not reactive, but they’re outnumbered significantly by people who are always trying to find new ways to beat systems,” Keselowski said. “And in some cases, they have to be reactive. This is one of those cases, in my mind.”
Ross Chastain has been the poster child for recently exploited loopholes that were closed. He found a shortcut at the Indianapolis road course that drew a penalty because it was too glaring, and his “Hail Melon” move at Martinsville was allowed to stand but later banned for future uses.
Similarly, Chastain said the line after Richmond is “not clear, but I am constantly aware of what I feel like everyone is thinking.”
“You just can’t be too far against the grain, in my opinion,” he said of what causes NASCAR to react.
Chastain and Dillon seemed to suggest Hamlin’s outspokenness may have played a role in the penalty. Dillon said Hamlin displayed “gamesmanship” with his comments on the “Actions Detrimental” podcast and showed the veteran was good at knowing how to work the system.
“He plays the game well, and in the end, this is a game,” Dillon said, politely declining to elaborate on his feelings about the penalty decision. “I’ve got to do the same thing right now with my approach to everything that’s going on. We’re in the middle of the thick of it for that process.”
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Chastain was more subtle about NASCAR potentially being influenced by the public discourse.
“We’re listening to people, hearing who is loud and who is the squeaky wheel,” he said. “It looks like they got some grease.”
Dillon wasn’t the only one penalized after Richmond. Logano was fined $50,000 for dangerous actions on pit road when he did a burnout near Dillon’s family and friends who were walking toward the track as cars were returning to the pits.
Logano acknowledged what he did was wrong but said he had full control of his car and was never in danger of running anyone over. He showed restraint considering the circumstances, he added.
“It’s comparable to somebody breaking into your house and taking all your stuff, and a minute and a half later, you see them all celebrating with your stuff in your front yard,” he said. “What would you do?”
(Top photo: Sean Gardner / Getty Images)
World Cup tourists are coming to L.A. for the soccer, but they’re staying for the $21 smoothies and Double-Doubles.
As the last Los Angeles FIFA World Cup event ended Friday, soccer fans were eating like locals and famous chains from the region were cashing in.
In the weeks that L.A. has hosted the World Cup, international soccer enthusiasts have flocked to big brands from the area, often in large groups wearing their countries’ jerseys.
It is a phenomenon seen at many of the host cities. In Dallas, giant gas station Buc-ee’s is the main attraction. For people visiting New Jersey, deli shops have been a hot ticket. In L.A., the place to be between matches was Erewhon.
Thirsty international sports fans gathered for pictures outside different Erewhons, wandered their aisles smiling, and, of course, picked up pricey smoothies.
While Erewhon would not comment on its business, mobility data company Arity, which uses phone data to track consumers, said Erewhon visits at the outlets around SoFi Stadium were quadruple what they were a week earlier on June 12, the day of the U.S. national soccer team’s opening match there.
Arity looked at what stores people visited within a 10-mile radius of SoFi that day and also found surges in visitors to nearby El Pollo Loco and Trader Joe’s.
Locals have spotted groups of people in Korea jerseys huddled together, trying to decide what to order at In-N-Out.
Some complained on social media that international tourists at Trader Joe’s were buying up all the mini canvas tote bags.
Soon after the Belgium vs. Spain quarterfinal ended Friday, the In-N-Out near SoFi had a long line of soccer fans stretching out the door in bright red and yellow and black jerseys and matching striped hats and scarves.
One of the workers said he had to explain “spread” and “animal style” to foreign football fans.
“I didn’t know this place existed,” a fan from Romania said while waiting in line.
Los Angeles and other cities and states that have hosted the event need the soccer fans to spend money to make the event worth all the time, effort and money it requires.
A rosy 2024 report projected the World Cup could bring more than $800 million to the L.A. region as 180,000 people converge on the area to sleep, eat and spend.
There were early concerns people weren’t turning up for the event because of the high ticket prices and the difficulty of obtaining visas for citizens of some countries.
However, at least for some L.A. hotels, there was a surge of last-minute visitors which pushed up occupancy and room rates.
While sports fans are not in the region to shop, they do make time for it.
World Cup customer spending is also apparent in beer sales. Andrew Heritage, the chief economist at the Beer Institute said beer purchases at entertainment and attractions in L.A. – outside of World Cup spaces – were up around 10% from normal.
“That tells me that fans in the L.A. area have decided to extend their stay and take in all the other things that the area has to offer, rather than just the match itself,” he said.
On social media, the purpose of these shoppers is clear: grab a quick souvenir or local specialty and take a selfie.
The data from Arity suggests that fans are very efficient when they spend at local spots, diving in, getting what they want and getting out as soon as possible, said Jeff Schlitt, a director at the company.
“Normally you’re there for an hour. They’re going to be there for 15, 18 minutes,” he said. “Why is that? Because they were purpose-driven shoppers.”
For some travelers, the more popular American chains aren’t unfamiliar. But some of the native L.A. fare still comes as a surprise.
As one Belgium-Spain matchgoer from the Netherlands stood taking a picture of the In-N-Out sign after the game, he said he’d never had a burger like the one he’d just tried.
“We only have McDonald’s and Burger King,” he said. “It’s way better.”
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The face of baseball will not be at Tuesday’s All-Star Game.
Shohei Ohtani was scratched from his start on Friday as the Los Angeles Dodgers said he will also miss the Midsummer Classic with what the team called left knee irritation.
Ohtani, for obvious reasons, has become an All-Star Game fixture. He has earned the honor in each of the past five seasons and made his first start in 2021.
Starting pitcher Shohei Ohtani #17 of the Los Angeles Dodgers warms up before the MLB game against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field on June 03, 2026 in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images) (Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
The two-way phenom is on his way to winning his fifth MVP award in his last six seasons as he is hitting .290 with a .939 OPS and pitching to a minuscule 1.79 ERA, the second-lowest in the sport among pitchers with 80-plus innings. His OPS is also the seventh-best mark in the league.
The Dodgers said Ohtani will be the team’s designated hitter up until the break, but he will “have some interventions on his knee to put him in the best position for the second half of the season.”
Ohtani dealt with knee issues earlier in the season.
It is certainly a big hit for the game as the other face of the sport, Aaron Judge, will miss the game due to a fractured rib that has kept him out since late May.
Shohei Ohtani #17 of the Los Angeles Dodgers gets ready in the on deck circle against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field on June 01, 2026 in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo by Norm Hall/Getty Images) (Norm Hall/Getty Images)
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Ohtani hit 99 home runs combined in 2024 and 2025, leading the National League with a 1.025 OPS in that span. Ohtani did not pitch in 2024 after elbow surgery but returned to the bump last year and owned a 2.87 ERA and 11.9 K/9, a figure he also put up in 2022 that led the American League.
The “Japanese Babe Ruth” is the only player in MLB history to have 300-plus plate appearances and 40-plus innings in six separate seasons (Ruth only did it twice and never stole 50 bases), and he has more than excelled at both.
Shohei Ohtani pitches for the Los Angeles Dodgers against the San Francisco Giants at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, California, on May 13, 2026. (Gary A. Vasquez/Imagn Images)
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Ohtani is not hitting like he has in the past, but certainly the best pitching performance of his career will make up for it. He “only” has 20 homers and 56 RBI this season.
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If Mikel Merino is sleeping, please don’t wake him. If the last week has been a dream, he’d just as soon keep dreaming.
Because on Friday, for the second time in five days, Merino came off the bench for the final five minutes of a World Cup knockout game and scored the winning goal, the latest lifting Spain to a 2-1 victory over Belgium and into next week’s semifinal against France in Arlington, Texas.
“Not even in my wildest dreams could I have imagined what’s happening right now, right?” Merino said in Spanish. “Honestly, it’s crazy.”
How crazy? Merino has played less than 10 minutes in the last two games and has two goals. He’s taken four shots in the World Cup and put two of them in the back of the net, the first in stoppage time to beat Portugal in the Round of 16 and in the 88th minute Friday to beat Belgium in a quarterfinal and extend Spain’s unbeaten to streak to 36 games.
“I don’t really even know what to say. I still can’t quite believe it,” Merino said.
Yet Spain’s final substitution, which brought on Merino in the 86th minute, wasn’t the only one that figured heavily in the result. Fifteen minutes earlier Belgian coach Rudi Garcia sent backup goalkeeper Senne Lammens on for Thibaut Courtois — not by choice, by necessity.
The dropoff in talent wasn’t great — Lammens started 32 times for Manchester United this season — but the difference in experience was. Courtois was playing in his 21st World Cup game, second-most all-time, and he had been brilliant up to then.
But he tweaked a muscle making a save minutes earlier and dropped to the turf just before the second-half hydration break. After being attended to by the team’s trainers, he tried to continue but couldn’t, eventually hobbling to the sideline and collapsing on the bench in tears.
“We didn’t want his injury to get worse. That’s why I subbed him off,” Garcia said.
“It’s part and parcel of high-level sport. You need to be concentrated, 100% focused, and need to be able to perform. I did not want to put players on the pitch who were not 100%.”
The margin between Belgium and Spain, after all, is a small one, even if the teams took completely different routes to the quarterfinal.
Spain, which hadn’t gone past the Round of 16 in a World Cup since 2010 when it won its only title, had gone a record six games and 609 minutes without allowing a World Cup goal, dating to the group stage of the last tournament four years ago.
Spain midfielder Mikel Merino scores off a rebound in front of Belgium goalkeeper Senne Lammens during the second half of Spain’s 2-1 quarterfinal win in the World Cup quarterfinals Friday at SoFi Stadium.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
You could binge watch two seasons of “Abbott Elementary” in that time.
But if Spain, the reigning European champion, and goalkeeper Unai Simón were the immovable objects, Belgium, playing in the quarterfinals for the third time in four World Cups, was an unstoppable force. With 12 goals in the last three games, it entered the quarterfinals with the third-most goals in the tournament. And no team had taken more shots.
Spain struck first, with Fabián Ruiz giving La Roja a 1-0 lead with his first goal of the tournament in the 30th minute. The sequence started with Pedro Porro sending a cross into the box for Dani Olmo, whose shot was parried away by Courtois. But Ruiz pounced on the rebound and deflected a shot off defender Timothy Castagne and into the back of the net.
In any other game of this tournament, that would have been enough for Simón. But not against Belgium, which ended Spain’s shutout streak in the 41st minute on a brilliant header from Charles De Keterlaere, who shielded Pau Cubarsí with his body and one-hopped a Castagne cross past a flat-footed Simón for his third goal in two games.
“The record and the milestones are there,” Spanish coach Luis de la Fuente said of his goalkeeper’s record streak. “It’s been decades since the last record was set. And perhaps somebody will break the clean-sheet record.
“But it’s going to be many, many years before that happens.”
Belgium opened the game up a bit when Garcia brought Romelu Lukaku, the country’s all-time leading scorer, on at the hour mark. But Courtois was called to make two saves in the next three minutes and came up lame after the second.
Shorty after he came off, De la Fuente summoned Merino over.
“He didn’t say much to me,” Merino said. “He told me I was coming in as the No. 10. And then, as the game was coming to an end, he told me I was incredible.
“Those are the only two things he said to me.”
The first shot Lammens faced came moments later, when Cubarsí put a one-hop shot on goal from distance. The keeper dove to his right to stop it with both hands, but the ball skipped just before it reached he and Lammens had trouble with the rebound, pushing it toward the edge of the six-yard box for Merino, who tapped it in.
“Unfortunately, to beat a team of this caliber, you need luck on your side,” Garcia, the Belgian coach, said. And the stars didn’t align for us.”
So while Belgium goes home, Spain goes to Texas for Tuesday’s semifinal with France, the only team in the world ranked ahead of it.
“Ever since the World Cup started, everyone has been waiting for this match,” Spanish wunderkind Lamine Yamal said. “I’ve been really looking forward to it. To me, they’re the two best teams in the World Cup.
“If anyone can take on France with confidence, it’s us.”
Especially if Merino keeps dreaming.
Sports editor Iliana Limón Romero contributed to this story.
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