Austin Dillon Loses Final Appeal | NASCAR Power Rankings Post-Daytona!

Intro Austin Dylan loses his final appeal that Richmond win will not count towards playoff [Music] eligibility how's it going y'all my name is Eric welcome to out of the groove we'll talk Austin Dylan also my final Power Rankings before the end of the regular season all that in just a moment but first this episode is sponsored by pristineauction.com they are the most trusted sports memorabilia and collectibles auction site auction on pristine auction.com start at just $1 and each day thousands of signed items are available every single item sold comes with a certificate of authenticity from the industry's most reputable authenticators pristine auction.com is your One-Stop shop for all things NASCAR upgrade your signed memorabilia collection today and get $10 off your first item one when you use registration code Eric that's ER I link is down in Austin Dillons Final Appeal the description below thank you to pristineauction.com for supporting the channel finally we have a decision Austin Dylan's win at Richmond will not be used towards the playoffs final appeals officer Bill Mullis ruled in favor of NASCAR earlier today and released this statement quote the data presented today from smt and idas systems indicate that more likely than not a rule violation did occur at Richmond Raceway on August 11th by the number three RCR car on the last lap of the race that rule 12.3 . 2.1b eligibility race finishes must be unencumbered by violations of the NASCAR rules or other actions detrimental to stock car auto racing or NASCAR as determined in the sole discretion of NASCAR gosh that is such a vague rule yeah effectively Bill Mullis who is the owner of Langley Speedway also the final appeals officer looked at NASCAR's rules and said hey yes if NASCAR decides that you broke the rules in route to Victory they have the right to remove playoff eligib it was always going to be an uphill battle for Richard chers racing to get the initial penalty overturned I get why they pushed it this far because if somehow they did get their playoff eligibility restored we're talking millions of dollars of difference everyone's talking about Harrison Burton and the Wood Brothers this week how that win at Daytona vaulted that team from 34th to at worst 16th in the points the way the charter agreement works and how money is paid out per points position we're talking at least two maybe $3 million that's the difference between finishing 34th and 16th in Points Austin Dylan is 29th in points forget about the competition the glory The Prestige that comes with being a playoff driver just getting to 16th in points is a huge financial boost for any team so I get why RCR pushed this to the highest possible level took it to the Supreme Court they had a slim chance of winning but any chance made it worthwhile you guys already know my take on this I believe NASCAR got the initial call mostly right I think going forward they've set a new precedent that says you can't straight up wipe someone out for the win for a playoff spot the line is somewhat blurry sure but that there is now a line that can be crossed I think is progress This Modern NASCAR era the cars are indestructible the format encourages lawlessness someone has to step in be the adult in the room that should be NASCAR NASCAR should have the sole authority to enforce their rules to police their sport to maintain healthy competition like I've been saying going forward into next year and Beyond I would like to see NASCAR Grant themselves the power to make more of these calls in the moment like they make other race altering calls in the moment like Brad Keselowski Saturday night being called for a restart violation late that was a you know maybe a questionable call a debatable let's just say but and it completely impacted the end of that race yet they made it they had no issue making that call they should have no issue making rough driving calls as well in the future in the moment that's my opinion I hope that changes in 2025 so we don't have to wait two weeks nearly no more than two weeks for a final decision to be made by somebody else like Bill Mullis doesn't work for NASCAR he is an independent final appeals officer I'm sorry but decisions like these should be made by the sanctioning body so so that's the only change I would like to see going forward I don't want to sit through two 3 weeks of appeals to finally know who freaking won 3 weeks ago or who's in the playoffs and who's not I'll go and throw this graphic up now that we know for sure that Austin Dylan is not in the playoffs he could obviously win at Darlington this weekend and qualify anyways but for now here's how the playoff picture looks here's the bubble Chris busher is in bubble Wallace minus 21 Chastain minus 27 are the first two out there you go that's the picture heading into Darlington this coming Sunday I'm glad this specific Saga now is over it sucks because before overtime at Richmond Austin Dylan was heading towards one of the greatest upset victories in modern NASCAR history they just brought a fast car past Denny Hamlin Joey lagano some of the best in the business to get the lead late were driving away it stinks that they were in the position they were in but that doesn't make Austin Dylan's moves on the final lap okay I'm glad Nascar has at least attempted to draw an actual line anyway like I said we can finally move on from that topic at least for the time being with the regular season coming to an end this Sunday night at Darlington Raceway that means today is my final regular season Power Rankings effectively right because next week we'll be starting to look ahead to the playoffs this is it right here right now I can't wait let's do it the 10 fastest overall drivers and teams in the Nascar Cup Series Right NASCAR Power Rankings Now spoiler alert there aren't a ton of changes from last week I think my picks last week were dead on at number 10 I still have Chris busher back-to-back top 10 finishes he earned more stage points than any other bubble driver at Daytona this past weekend and now we head to Darlington where back in May Chris busher LED 21 laps and was wrecked while leading late busher has been good at intermediates was a close second at Kansas I like the seven this weekend at number nine I like his teammate Brad kezelowski also with back-to-back top 10s now also recent Darlington success after busher got wrecked it was Brad Keselowski who won the spring race Brad was second at Texas second at Charlotte fifth last week at Michigan it's not just Chris busher I like both RFK cars this weekend at Darlington so they're in my top 10 still and number eight for the second consecutive week is Bubba Wallace sixth place finish at Daytona not bad that that's five top 10 finishes the past seven races and looking ahead to Darlington Bubba was good there in the spring finished seventh the thing I don't like about bubba this week specifically is I believe he's under more pressure than probably anyone else in the Nascar Cup Series and as we've seen in the past I'm not sure Bubba Wallace is the best at handling that great pressure he seemed to crack a little after Saturday night's Daytona race telling reporters on Pit Road afterwards quote racing around the bubble is getting old I'm taking a lot of that on my shoulders it's been 25 races I haven't bleep talked myself but not winning at this point is unacceptable 2311 has been really fast recently but no one is under more pressure than Bubba Wallace this weekend I have him at number eight at number seven Chase Elliott got crashed out before halfway at Daytona not much he could really do there I know the number nine car has been faster than the results would suggest but man over the past eight races Chase Elliott's best finish is ninth all year long we've praised the consistency shoot Daytona was his first dnf of the entire season but these recent finishes I don't know some of that early season magic may have slipped away and the timing is not great with the playoffs right around the corner I'll put his teammate at number six William Byron LED some laps at Michigan finished second last week his first laps LED actually in months he was also in the mix late Saturday night at Daytona but was caught up in the mess when Josh Barry flipped over but he got stage points he's back in the top five in the regular season standings once again and I'm sure he's excited to head to Darlington his last four Darlington finishes sixth fourth first 8th and five races ago he was leading with two to go and got wrecked by Joey Lano this weekend is a great opportunity for William Byron to grab another playoff point or maybe several there are a couple of changes in my top five but not at number five I still have Denny Hamlin there like Chase Elliot he was caught up in that early crash really no fault of his own The Vibes are all out of whack with the 11 team I listened to Hamlin's podcast this week he admitted that he has been just in a miserable mood the past few days really since that engine penalty came out that docked the team 10 playoff points and then some since then he's dnfed at Daytona he's seen his driver Bubba Wallace Face an even steeper battle to make the playoffs I don't like the energy the finishes are still good like the 11 team has speed they were second at Pocono recently second at Richmond they were still ninth last week at Michigan with damage the 11 is fast but they haven't been able to stream together back to back to back good finishes in a while and the mood seems not great Hamlin at five at number four I've got Ryan Blain look he ran a very good Daytona race earned stage points but he never controlled the race at any point the way his teammate Joey Lano did blany was in the mix towards the very end unfortunately he was caught up in that big Michael McDow crash late finished 29th after a great stretch of six top T in seven races couple of wins mixed in there blany now has three straight finishes just outside of the top 10 I know Michigan was kind of fluky he got messed up with Chase Elliot there at the very end so I know blay fans are going to be mad that I dropped him one spot in the standings but Christopher Bell who I've got at number three this week is consistently faster than Ryan blay Let me spell it out sure Christopher Bell has crashed out of three of the last 12 races but let's look at those three races Nashville he led over 100 laps back in traffic dirty air made a mistake crashed at Chicago he led 14 laps and was charging through the field was going to catch Alex Bowman but got caught up in someone else's mess late and then Michigan he ran top 10 all day before getting caught up in Kyle Larson's mess he was bad fast in all three races he crashed out of the nine races he hasn't crashed out of he has two wins and an average finish of Fifth and he's LED nearly 600 laps in that span sure it's close between blay and Bell but give me Christopher Bell even though I don't fully trust those Toyota Racing Engines right now top two number two I still have to give Kyle Larson the respect he deserves for just how great his overall season has been he's got the most wins of anyone and if he doesn't miss the K 600 he's more than likely leading the points right now despite that he's still second 17 points back he's LED laps in four straight races won the Brickyard 400 made a mistake at Michigan just acknowledge that but that's l you're going to take the bad with the good because there is a lot of good lson is also the defending Southern 500 winner so watch for him to be fast at Darlington this weekend lson at two and at number one still is Tyler reck he didn't run up front much at Daytona was caught up in the big Michael McDow crash late but this was only his second finish outside of the top 10 all summer he still has again a 17-point lead in the regular season Championship heading into the final race and the final race being at Darlington look Tyler reick was that guy who crashed into Chris busher Racing for the lead late but he was in the mix for the win late expect reck to be fast once again this weekend Tyler reic still in the number one spot there's my top 10 very few changes from last week let me know if you agree disagree I'm looking forward to Darlington because then afterwards I think we'll have to hard reset and look at the playoff picture look at who has the momentum and really make some changes to the top 10 but I feel pretty good about this list right here right now what do you think let me know in the comments and while you're down there leave a like if you enjoyed this video subscribe for more NASCAR content just about every single day and a huge thank you to my very generous patreon supporters as well I was working on another video today I think I'll release that one in the morning talking about track house their decision to go with SVG over Zane Smith how they handled it very very interesting if you ask me but that's going to do it for this episode right here today have a wonderful rest of your Monday folks I'll talk to you again real soon [Music] we got a dog a few weeks back and he's not happy that I went out of town to Daytona without him for a couple of days so he has to be here he has to be on camera in the video say hi say hi to the people oh there's a microphone say hi to the people Cosmo Say howdy all right it's the best we're gonna get