Austin Dillon doesn’t currently have the playoff spot he thought he’d earned with the aggressive moves that crashed Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin to secure him a win at Richmond Raceway. But the 2018 Daytona 500 winner has no regrets and a simple message to his detractors.
“You don’t hate the player,” he told NBC Sports during an interview after Saturday’s Cup Series qualifying was rained out. “You hate the game.”
In this case, the ‘game’ is NASCAR’s win-and-in playoff system – a unique championship format where a single victory at any stage of the regular season can lock a driver into one of the 16 playoff spots to chase the title over the final 10 races.
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Entering Richmond 32nd in the points with four races left before the playoffs, Dillon was desperate to lock himself into the postseason field with a win. He appeared poised to do just that, but a late caution and slow restart opened the door for Logano to snag the top spot from Dillon in overtime. So over the final half-lap of action, Dillon did whatever it took to secure a win – sending Logano spinning from behind with a deep dive into Turn 3 and catching the right-rear of Hamlin’s No. 11 when he tried to take advantage and pass them both off Turn 4.
It was enough to get Dillon the win. NASCAR didn’t disqualify him from the victory, but did deem the move over the line and stripped Dillon and his No. 3 team of the playoff perks and giving them 25-point penalties in the drivers’ and owners’ championships. Spotter Brandon Benesch was also suspended three races for telling Dillon to wreck Hamlin coming to the line.
Richard Childress Racing (RCR) is currently appealing the decision. In the meantime, Dillon has been tight-lipped. He hasn’t talked to Logano or Hamlin and is saving his emotions and plans for the appeal.
“I’ve got to be careful with what I give out right now for the appeal process, because it’s going to be like a trial, it really is,” Dillon said. “I wish everybody could see it, television, would be cool to be in there. Because I haven’t really given my entire story of the game yet.
“I feel like Denny did a really good job on his podcast, giving his side of the story adamantly this week. A couple extra podcasts than he normally does. For us, I also listened to his podcast when he talked about the appeal process and how tough it is.
“I’m going to do my best to get RCR in the playoffs where they need to be, where they deserve to be currently. From there I will give all the media and everybody else my exact feelings after that’s all said, done and over with.“
While he’s keeping his strategies close to the vest, Dillon did take a moment to address Logano in the interview. The two-time Cup champ was furious after being spun at Richmond, performing an angry burnout down pit road – a move that later cost him $50,000 to a NASCAR fine – and giving incendiary quotes about Dillon in post-race interviews.
Dillon said it was nothing personal in Michigan.
“I’m sorry for the situation that he was in,” Dillon said. “It didn’t matter if it was Joey or anybody, I was going to do my best to get my team to victory lane. The situation on pit road after the race, you know a lot of things were said in the heat of the moment from him about my family and my belief in Christ, even. (But) for me, I forgive him.”
More than anything, Dillon drove home that he has no regrets – something he’s picked up from the two drivers he scorned in Virginia.
“I’ve learned a lot from Joey and Denny over the years,” he said. “They don’t have any regrets in what they do on the race track. I can’t, either. I don’t feel that way. I’m not going to say I regret anything, because I went to sleep and felt good about everything I had to do for me and my team.
“I have gone to sleep some nights, staying up until 3 or 4 in the morning, wondering what I could have done differently. In this situation, I don’t know what I could have done.”