By Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi
Aug 12, 2024
RICHMOND, Va. — Austin Dillon crashed two drivers in front of him on the final lap to win Sunday night’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Richmond Raceway, creating one of the most controversial NASCAR finishes of the last several years.
With Joey Logano well ahead entering the last turn of the race, Dillon never slowed down for the corner and crashed into Logano, sending him spinning. Then, as Denny Hamlin moved underneath a briefly slowed Dillon, the Richard Childress Racing driver hit Hamlin in the right rear and sent him into the wall as well.
Advertisem*nt
“It’s chicken s—,” said Logano, who finished 19th. “There’s no doubt about it. He is four car lengths back, not even close. Then he wrecks (Hamlin) to go along with it. Then he’s going to go up there and thank God and praise everything with his baby. It’s a bunch of BS. It’s not even freakin’ close.
“Dude, bump-and-run, I get it. I didn’t back up the corner at all. He came in there and just drove through me. It’s ridiculous that that’s the way we race. Unbelievable.”
NASCAR rarely uses rough driving penalties, so officials allowed the victory to stand despite anger from other competitors. NASCAR senior vice president of competition Elton Sawyer later said officials would review the incident and make a ruling later in the week. The precedent NASCAR has set in such situations is to not take away a victory after the fact.
“The last lap was awfully close to the line,” Sawyer said. “We’ll take a look at all the available resources from audio to video; we’ll listen to spotters, crew chiefs and drivers. If anything rises to a level that we think we need to penalize, we’ll do that on Tuesday.”
Earlier this year, NASCAR issued an in-race rough driving penalty to Truck Series driver Layne Riggs for bumping Stefan Parsons during a race. And it has suspended drivers in the past who right-rear hook competitors, citing safety concerns.
But NASCAR declined to take action, at least in the immediate aftermath of the race, regarding Dillon (who is now in the NASCAR playoffs, since only one win is required to make it).
“Absolutely a line was crossed, but it’s an invisible line,” Hamlin said. “It’s not defined. I mean, they have rules and provisions for stuff like this, but they never take action for it.”
Said Sawyer: “Historically, that hasn’t been our DNA to take races away, but that’s not to say that going forward that this wouldn’t start a precedent. We’ll have to look at it.”
Advertisem*nt
Dillon was desperate to make the NASCAR playoffs because he entered the Richmond race 32nd in the standings and had not led a single lap all season. He was going to win the race before a late caution set up overtime, which would have been a shocking upset.
But the way Dillon did it sparked controversy. So upset was Hamlin with how the finish unfolded he went to the NASCAR hauler to speak with officials.
“It’s obviously foul, but it is fair in NASCAR,” Hamlin said. “It is a different league. There are no penalties for rough driving or anything like that, so it opens up the opportunity for Austin to just do whatever he wants. The problem that I have is I got hooked in the right rear again. I’m just minding my own business, and he turned left, and he hooked me in the right rear and blew my damn shoulder out. I don’t know.
“The record book won’t care about what happened. He is going to be credited with a win. He is just not going to go far because you have to pay your dues back on stuff like that, but it is worth it because they jumped 20 positions in points, so I understand all that. There is no ill will there. I get it. I just hate that I was a part of it.”
Logano was even more blunt in his criticism of Dillon.
“He’s a piece of crap,” Logano said. “He sucks. “He’s sucked his whole career, and now he’s gonna be in the playoffs. Good for him, I guess.”
Dillon said he would’ve preferred not to be overly aggressive, but the heightened stakes of what a win meant effectively forced his hand.
“It’s just the rules of the sport, right?” he said. “It is what it is. Wins get you into the next round. I did what I had to do to cross the start-finish line first.
“I’ve seen Denny and Joey make moves that have been running people up the track to win. This is the first opportunity in two years for me to be able to get a win. I drove in there and kept all four tires turning across the start-finish line. To me, I’ve seen a lot of stuff over the years in NASCAR where people move people. It’s just part of our sport. Remember when Joey said ‘short-track racing.’ He knows what it was.”
Advertisem*nt
Members of Dillon’s Richard Childress Racing team defended their driver, some even drawing connections to the late Dale Earnhardt, whose unabashed driving style helped propel him to six championships while driving for RCR.
“Saw that 3 car do that a lot,” said Keith Rodden, RCR’s interim competition director. “Unfortunately, you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. He’s got to get into the playoffs.”
Team owner Richard Childress, Dillon’s grandfather, said both Logano and Hamlin would’ve done the same thing had they been in his grandson’s position.
“It’s racing. They would do it to him, I promise you,” Childress said. “If he would have been leading it, (Logano) would have moved him out of the way. (Hamlin) would have moved him out of the way. Either one of them would have done the same thing. I’ve seen it before.”
The victory snaps Dillon’s 68-race winless streak that dates back to August 2022 at Daytona. And it ensures he’ll be one of 16 drivers who will vie for the championship when the playoffs start next month.
But how he earned the win also places a big target on Dillon’s back — not that he cares any. What had been a wretched, frustrating season before Sunday suddenly takes on a much more optimistic outlook.
And if either Logano or Hamlin are thinking of retaliating against his grandson, Childress offered a clear warning.
“Just prepare yourself is all I can say,” Childress said. “It’s a two-way street. If you kick a dog, he might bite you, but you might get bit again yourself.”
(Photo: Logan Whitton / Getty Images)
