NASCAR: Was Austin Dillon’s last-lap move on Aric Almirola clean or dirty?
When the checkered flag waved for the Daytona 500, Austin Dillon was in NASCAR’s Victory Lane, but were the means by which he got there fair? How should we look at his pass of Aric Almirola?
In 1990, the movie Days of Thunder was released starring Tom Cruise and became, according to many, the greatest NASCAR movie of all-time. In this movie, we get a line that perfectly summarizes the style of NASCAR: “rubbing is racing.”
No driver epitomized that more than Dale Earnhardt Sr., who always had a knack for rubbing his fellow competitors the wrong way.
Well, wouldn’t you know it, 20 years later the man carrying his number, Austin Dillon, would win the Daytona 500 in the shade of controversy that the #3 had become accustomed to?
On the final lap of this year’s Daytona 500, Dillon drove into the back of Aric Almirola, spinning Almirola into the wall. Dillon went on to win the race.
Now, this a moral grey area in racing. Did Dillon’s car come into contact with Almirola’s car’s rear end and lead Almirola’s car’s front end into the outside wall at 200 miles per hour? Yes. But it was also on the last lap of the most important race in NASCAR history. Would you have done it?
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I used to race go-karts when I was younger and I didn’t consider myself an aggressive driver, but when it came to winning a race, I had no problem diving my car down into the corner and slamming into the leader on the last corner of the last lap.
I even remember an instance when I was running in second on the last lap and the leader left me a small opening going into the last corner. I held the gas pedal down and drove straight into the corner and our sides met.
Eight tires are better than four. I was able to keep my car level and leave the gas pedal all the way down as I leaned on the leader and went on to win the race.
I would’ve done anything to win, and those were just junior division go-kart races where the grand prize was between $20 and $50.
These men and women are racing for millions on top of having their names etched in NASCAR glory for eternity. This was more than an average race and I am sure most drivers would wreck their own grandmother for that win.
The move itself, in my opinion, was clean, not just in the parameters of how important the moment was, but because Dillon did not ram into the back of Almirola nor did he turn his wheel with the intention of wrecking him.
As Dillon said in a post-race interview, “I stayed in the gas.” He did what you’re always supposed to do at Daytona and kept his foot on the gas. He had the run, Almirola swung up to try to kill Dillon’s momentum, and Dillon didn’t relent.
Any driver that throws a block knows the risk, and I think that is probably why no malice was shown by Almirola in the end.
Next: Top 10 Daytona drivers of all-time
Congratulations to Austin Dillon and all the hard-working men and women at Richard Childress Racing. Austin Dillon is the clean winner of the 2018 Daytona 500.