Race Winner Austin Dillon's Actions at Richmond Set off NASCAR Firestorm

• Austin Dillon created the final-lap firestorm when he hit the rear of Joey Logano’s Ford.

• Dillon, who hadn't won a race since 2022, is now Playoff eligible despite being just 26th in the points.

• NASCAR Senior Vice President of Competition Elton Sawyer said NASCAR would review video and audio from drivers, crew chiefs and spotters and announce on Tuesday if Dillon's actions are deserving of a penalty.

“Just prepare yourself is all I can say. It’s a two-way street.”

Those were the words of advice team owner Richard Childress had for Austin Dillon after his grandson’s controversial victory in Sunday night’s Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway that resulted in some competitors describing it as “unprofessional” and “chickenshit.”

Dillon, who hadn’t won a NASCAR Cup race since August 2022, created the final-lap firestorm when he hit the rear of Joey Logano’s Ford in turns three and four and spun him out of the lead. He then caught the right rear of Denny Hamlin’s Toyota, and sent him into the outside wall as he sped to the finish line.

Logano and his crew chief Paul Wolfe were irate after the explosive finish. Childress maintained if the roles were reversed, that Logano and Hamlin would have done the same thing to Dillon.

“Short-track racing is short-track racing,” Childress said. “I’ve seen it more than once. When it comes down to the end of the day, any of these guys do what it takes to win the race there at the very end. That’s racing. It’s one of those deals that when it comes down to winning a race and you’re in that position, you’re hungry, you do what it takes. That’s what I told him (Dillon) all his life.

“They would do it to him, I promise you. If he would have been leading it, that 22 (Logano) would have moved him out of the way. The 11 (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 wild finish was set up by an incident between Ryan Preece and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. with two laps remaining in the scheduled 400-lap race. Just three laps earlier, Dillon possessed a 2.981-second lead over Hamlin with Logano third. They pitted for tires during the caution period and on the restart, Dillon was leading with Logano second and Hamlin third.

Logano bolted into the lead and had at least a two-car length lead on Dillon as they raced down the backstretch on the final lap. The fireworks erupted as they sped into turn three on the three-quarter-mile track.

“I went into turn three in fifth gear, and … tried to get in loose, got him (Logano) up the track,” Dillon explained. “I got the car downshifted, and the car actually turned pretty good when I did that. When I was coming back left, the 11 (Hamlin) was coming. That was just kind of a reaction.”

Dillon said he had seen Logano and Hamlin both run people up the track to win.

“It’s just part of our sport,” Dillon says. “I did what I had to do to cross the start/finish line first.”

There was audio allegedly of Dillon’s spotter Brandon Benesch telling his driver to wreck Hamlin as they sped to the finish line. If he did, Dillon said he never heard him.

“I’m just looking at the start/finish line. That’s it!” Dillon said. “I ain’t hearing shit at that point. Your eyes turn red. You see red. You have one job to do. It’s get to the start/finish line first.”

NASCAR Senior Vice President of Competition Elton Sawyer said they would review video and audio from drivers, crew chiefs and spotters.

“If anything rises to the level that we feel like we need to penalize, then we’ll do that on Tuesday,” Sawyer said. “Our sport has been a contact sport for a long time. We always hear where’s the line and did someone cross the line. I would say that last lap was awful close to the line.”

In Logano’s opinion, it was over the line.

“I beat him fair and square on the restart and he just pulls a chickenshit move,” an irate Logano said. “He’s a piece of crap. He sucks. He’s sucked his whole career.

“Then he wrecks the 11 (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.”

Logano said he had no trouble with the bump-and-run maneuver, but Dillon “drove through me.”

When Logano was asked how he would race Dillon in the future, he replied, “Wait and see.”

Wolfe said the race turned into a “joke” at the end.

“At some point, it’s up to NASCAR to step up and set the precedent for what’s acceptable,” Wolfe said. “It was a tough race and something like that, that’s not racing. At some point, NASCAR is going to have to make the right call on these things and they missed it tonight with allowing that and giving that car (Dillon) the win.

“At some point we’re still a racing series. That’s not professional what happened tonight. If NASCAR thinks that’s professional, then we’ve really lost sight of what’s going on here.”

Hamlin said his problem with Dillon was he hooked him in the right rear and “blew my damn shoulder out.”

“I understand it. Doesn’t mean I have to agree with it,” Hamlin said.

Dillon entered Sunday night’s race 32nd in the driver standings. He left Richmond 26th in the standings and with a playoff berth. His victory also changed the cutoff for the playoff positions available via points. With Dillon becoming the 13th different winner this season, only three drivers can point their way into the 16-member playoff field.

With three races remaining in the regular season, Bubba Wallace is now three points above the cutline with Chris Buescher and Ross Chastain each three points below it. Martin Truex Jr. and Ty Gibbs are the other two drivers above the cutline.