RICHMOND, Va.: As Cook Out 400 winner Austin Dillon led a celebratory chant of “Whatever it takes,” second-place finisher Denny Hamlin and would-be winner Joey Logano protested the No. 3 driver taking out their cars en route to Victory Lane.
A late-race caution caused by an accident involving Ryan Preece and Ricky Stenhouse Jr., sent the race into overtime with Dillon in the lead. While he retained the point off of pit road, Joey Logano grabbed the point on the restart—but it was short-lived.
Dillon dumped Logano in Turn 3 after taking the white flag in overtime. Although Hamlin assumed the lead, Dillon hooked the No. 11 Toyota moments later to take the checkered flag and his first win in 68 races.
“It’s just the rules of the sport, right? It is what it is,” Dillon said. “Wins get you into the next round. I did what I had to do to cross the start/finish line first.”
While NASCAR short tracks historically have resembled the wild, wild west, the sport has worked to establish a more gentlemanly tack. For Hamlin, that decorum was violated on Saturday night.
“Well, it’s obviously foul,” Hamlin said. “It’s fair in NASCAR. We’re just a different league, right? There is no penalties for rough driving or anything like that. It opens up the opportunity for Austin to be able to just do whatever he wants. The problem I had, I got hooked in the right rear again. I’m just minding my business. He turned left and hooked me in the right rear. Blew my damn shoulder out.
“I don’t know. The record book won’t care, right, about what happened. He’s going to be credited with the win. Obviously he’s just not going to go far (in the Playoffs) ’cause you 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.”
Dillon entered the weekend 32nd in the NASCAR Cup standings with four races to determine the Playoff grid. His fifth career win ended a 68-race drought. Dillon’s last victory came in the regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway to transfer into the 2022 postseason. Saturday night’s win at Richmond vaulted Dillon above the cut-off line.
“After the season we had, the good Lord above just blessed us today,” Dillon said. “We had a fast No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevy, and I hated to see that caution come out. I knew it was going to be wild and coming to the last corner, I just had to go for it.
“It was our opportunity; you don’t get many of those and that is what our partners, my family and RCR wants us to do, is to go and try to get a win. So, I just had to send it.”
Hamlin understands Dillon’s motives. He just doesn’t agree with the execution.
“There’s no ill will there,” Hamlin said. “I just hate I was part of it. It would have been fun if I was not one of the two guys that got taken out in the last corner.
“Absolutely a line was crossed, but it’s an invisible line. It’s not defined. I mean, they have rules and provisions for stuff like this, but they never take action for it. What happens is you see young guys coming up in the short track ranks seeing that, and they think it’s fine.
“That’s why we see some of the lower series turn out the way they do in these green-white-checkered situations because some of the best that they’re seeing on Sunday do stuff like that.
“I mean, who am I to throw stones in a glass house? But I certainly never won one that way.”
Logano showed his displeasure by buzzing the No. 3’s pit before coming to a stop and address the media.
“Apparently, it’s OK,” Logano said of Dillon’s last lap move. “What do you want me to say? Apparently, he can come from five car lengths back and completely wreck someone and then wreck another one to the line and we’re going to call that racing.
“I was like, ‘I’ll just wrap the bottom here. I’m good.’ And he just drives in so hard. Obviously, he didn’t make the turn because he hit me and the 11 was gonna win the race, so he had no intention to race. I beat him fair and square on the restart and he just pulls a chicken shit move.
“He’s a piece of crap. He sucks. He’s sucked his whole career and now he’s gonna be in the playoffs. Good for him, I guess.”
Logano’s crew chief Paul Wolfe was still in disbelief as the No. 22 Ford returned via wrecker to the garage.
“It’s unfortunate what it turned into on the last corner of the last lap,” Wolfe said. “It’s as far from racing as you can get. It’s really disappointing that NASCAR allows stuff like that to go on. I don’t know what else to say.
“He wrecked us. Then he hooked another car because he wasn’t going to win, then he hooked the 11. If he had washed up into us on the green going into (turn) 1, then you would understand that was what was going to happen. We raced clean. We passed him clean. We were four car lengths ahead of him. That wasn’t a ‘racing incident. Anyone can see that.
“So, I guess what I’m asking NASCAR is what have we gotten to? Is this not racing anymore? At some point, we’re not going to have to turn into a circus here. I get it. We want stories. We want cars that don’t run good into the Playoffs. But gosh, we’re still racing here and when we lose sight of that I don’t know what we’re doing anymore.”
NASCAR’s Senior Vice President of Competition Elton Sawyer said late Saturday night the sanctioning body would review further review the incident. Any possible repercussions could come on Tuesday.
“Historically, it hasn’t been our DNA to take races away,” Sawyer said. “But that’s not to say that going forward this wouldn’t start a precedent and we have to look at it.”
Follow Lee Spencer on Twitter @CandiceSpencer or email her at: [email protected].
