Desperate to win for the first time in nearly two years — and with the race quickly slipping away — Austin Dillon sent two cars into the wall one after the other.
The result was a season-changing victory, a lot of controversy, and at least two veteran drivers who were very angry.
“I hate to do that, but sometimes you just got to have it,” Dillon said.
Dillon fought and bumped his way to victory Sunday night, spinning Joey Logano on the final lap to win in overtime at Richmond. It was his first win since August 28, 2022, at Daytona.
He had only two top-10 finishes this year and was ranked 32nd in the standings before the race. Now he’s in position for the playoffs — but he didn’t get there without causing a stir.
Dillon seemed to be heading for a win when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Ryan Preece crashed, causing the first caution of the entire 400-lap, 300-mile race except for the scheduled breaks after the first two stages.
The race then went to overtime, and Logano had a clear advantage over Dillon on the restart. Dillon then came up right behind Logano and spun him out.
“It’s ridiculous that that’s the way we race. Unbelievable,” Logano said. “I get bump and runs. I do that. I would expect it. But from four car lengths back, he was never going to make the corner. And then he wrecks the other car. He wrecks the 11 to go with it. What a piece of crap.”
The 11 was Denny Hamlin, who seemed to be passing Dillon on the inside after Dillon bumped Logano’s No. 22 car. Dillon then hit the back right part of Hamlin’s car and sent him into the wall too.
“He’s going to be credited with the win, but obviously he’s just not going to go far,” Hamlin said. “You’ve got to pay your dues back on stuff like that. But it’s worth it because they jump 20 positions in points.
So I understand all that. There’s no ill will there. I get it. I just hate I was a part of it. It would have been fun if I wasn’t one of the two guys that got taken out on the last corner.”
Dillon came out on top amidst all the chaos with a victory in his No. 3 Chevrolet. That number was famously driven — often aggressively — by Dale Earnhardt.
But times have changed since Earnhardt’s era, and Elton Sawyer, NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition, made it clear that the end of this race would be reviewed.
“In my view, that’s getting really close to crossing the line,” Sawyer said. Actually taking away the victory would be an unusual move.
“Historically, that hasn’t been our DNA to take races away, but that’s not to say that going forward this wouldn’t start to set a precedent,” Sawyer said. “We’d have to look at it.”
Dillon seemed to be on his way to a less controversial win after passing Hamlin for the lead with 29 laps to go. But then the Stenhouse-Preece crash and the subsequent restart put Dillon at risk of a frustrating loss.
Dillon said he was trying to move Logano’s car, but hitting Hamlin as well was more of an immediate reaction.
“I’ve seen Denny and Joey make moves that have been running people up the track to win,” Dillon said.
“This was the first opportunity in two years for me to be able to get a win. … I’ve seen a lot of stuff over the years in NASCAR where people move people, and it’s just part of our sport.”
