Wednesday was a busy day for NASCAR, as officials handed out several penalties and reversed an earlier decision. The biggest talking point came when Austin Cindric avoided a race suspension for his actions at Circuit of the Americas last weekend.
Explanations poured in, and different scenarios were considered, but NASCAR’s decision set off a firestorm on social media. Fans were far from pleased and came together to question the sport’s consistency once again.
NASCAR’s Decision on Austin Cindric Sparks Strong Fan Reactions
Instead of a one-race suspension, Cindric received a 50-point deduction and a $50,000 fine for retaliating against Ty Dillon. NASCAR cited three reasons for not suspending him.
First, officials said Cindric was driving at a lower speed compared to an intermediate or superspeedway. Second, because Dillon was able to continue racing, they felt a harsher penalty wasn’t necessary. Third, there was no caution called after the incident.
Fans weren’t buying the explanation, arguing that these factors were due to the race format rather than a unique circumstance.
“It’s a road course” *Cindric right reared him on the straight*
“it was lower speeds” *over 100MPH*
“It didn’t draw a caution” *you didn’t throw a caution*These NASCAR clowns are TERRIBLE. Trying to listen to “Hauler Talk” is just constantly being talked down to.
— 🅿️ (@WhitelineFinest) March 5, 2025
Meanwhile, NASCAR’s Mike Forde explained why a suspension wasn’t the appropriate penalty. He said officials review each situation as a “unique incident.”
NASCAR's Mike Forde on Hauler Talk about the Austin Cindric penalty: “The reason we landed on a points and fine – we take every situation, every violation as its own unique incident, and I know probably fans don’t love hearing that sentence, and it’s said a lot. But it’s said…
— Kelly Crandall (@KellyCrandall) March 5, 2025
“The reason we landed on a points and fine – we take every situation, every violation as its own unique incident, and I know probably fans don’t love hearing that sentence, and it’s said a lot,” Forde said. “But it’s said because it has to be said. It’s said because it’s true. Sure, we do look at past instances to help inform us, educate ourselves on how we should handle each subsequent one.
“But each incident is very different. Maybe not very different but each is at least a little bit different and often times very different. In this case, we did feel it was significantly different than the previous two. And the reasons are, you look at it, it is at a road course (with) lower speed, tight confines to begin with and the result didn’t even draw a caution. Now, obviously, the caution flag doesn’t come out as quickly on road courses anyway, but that did not draw a caution.
“So, those were really the reasons why we chose to err on the side of letting him race this weekend in Phoenix.”
Forde added that while past incidents help guide decisions, no two situations are exactly the same, so penalties can differ.
A similar incident happened in 2022 with Noah Gragson, who also avoided a race suspension. That showed some consistency in NASCAR’s rulings, but fans were still frustrated.
With the way penalties have evolved, some drivers have received harsher punishments for lesser offenses. Many fans called out what they saw as inconsistency, saying it was infuriating.
The inconsistency with this organization is just laughable at this point
— andrew 🤙🏼 (@The_Weidmanator) March 5, 2025
There were also calls for NASCAR to penalize intent rather than just the outcome.
