What Austin Dillon said about wrecking Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin to win NASCAR Richmond race

Austin Dillon was anything but apologetic after wrecking Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin to win Sunday’s Cook Out 400 NASCAR Cup Series race at Richmond Raceway.

Dillon drove deep into turns 3 and 4 on the final lap, sending the leader Logano around. Dillon then turned Hamlin in the right rear as the No. 11 Toyota sped past with a clear chance to take the win.

With both drivers crashed, Dillon sped to the win under caution.

Dillon said after the race that he did what he had to do to win, breaking a winless streak dating back to 2022. Dillon admitted that he wanted to get Logano “loose”, then turned Hamlin on “reaction”.

The 2024 season had been Dillon’s worst as a full-time Cup Series driver heading into the Richmond race; the driver of the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet was 32nd in points with no top-five finishes and two top-10s.

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But with Sunday’s win, Dillon is now locked into the playoffs.

“I’ve seen Denny and Joey make moves that have been running people up the track to win,” Dillon said after the race. “This is the first opportunity in two years for me to be able to get a win. I drove in there, 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, and it’s a part of our sport.

“In your shoes, what would you do?”

NASCAR’s Elton Sawyer doesn’t rule out penalty for Richmond finish, says Austin Dillon’s actions ‘awful close to the line’

NASCAR Senior VP of Competition Elton Sawyer didn’t rule out a penalty for Dillon’s actions, which would be handed out on Tuesday.

“Our sport has been a contact sport for a long time,” Sawyer said to the media in Richmond after the race, per FOX Sports. “We always hear, ‘Where is the line? Did someone cross the line?’ I would say that the last lap was awful close to the line.”

Sawyer acknowledged that NASCAR doesn’t often take a race win away for similar actions but that they will “have to look at it.”

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: What Austin Dillon said about NASCAR Richmond race finish