Just like on the tight confines of a short track, whenever the NASCAR Cup Series gets the opportunity to tackle the twists and turns of a road course, there tends to be a lot of full-contact racing, and as history shows, with that comes the flaring of tempers.
Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas (COTA) was pretty quick to conform to that notion, with an early-race incident that has caught the eye of NASCAR’s officials and will require an in-depth analysis in the early portion of the week.
The incident in question happened on the fourth lap of Sunday’s 95-lap contest, when Austin Cindric and Ty Dillon were battling for a position outside the top-25, which quickly resulted in things getting physical.
We are four laps in and payback has already happened. Things are wild in Texas today. 👀 pic.twitter.com/MxqWlpbsHU
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) March 2, 2025
Dillon, driving the No. 10 Chevrolet for Kaulig Racing, was on the inside of Cindric when he pushed the Team Penske driver extremely wide on the exit of Turn 20, giving the No. 2 Ford Mustang Dark Horse absolutely no room to return to the racing surface before the run-off area turned into grass.
Though, what happened immediately afterwards is what really caught the eye of NASCAR.
“Yeah, unfortunately that happened early on in the race, so there was not a caution at that point for it,” Brad Moran, Managing Director of the NASCAR Cup Series told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Tuesday. “But, we are going to go back, and that’s on our list today, so we’ll have a look at that and see if there was something there that we do not like, and if there is we’ll have to deal with it.”
After getting himself back onto the racing surface, Cindric appeared to turn sharply left down the frontstretch, hooking the right-rear of Dillon’s No. 10 Chevrolet and sending him spinning into the right-side wall, damaging his vehicle.
Neither Cindric nor Dillon had any extensive damage that would force them to retire from the event, and both drivers continued on, with Cindric finishing 25th and Dillon coming home in 28th.
At this time, it’s unknown what a penalty assessed to Austin Cindric would even entail.
In the past, a driver that is found to have intentionally right-reared another competitor into the outside wall has come with a one-race suspension – most recently Chase Elliott turning Denny Hamlin at Charlotte in 2023 – but it’s unknown how NASCAR would officiate this, considering the speed and low severity of the incident.
Typically, NASCAR confirms its penalties (technical or competition-based) through its weekly penalty report, which is usually released on Tuesday evening or Wednesday.