Austin Dillon felt he did what he had to do to cross the finish line first Sunday night at Richmond Raceway.
Dillon ran into the back of Joey Logano in Turn 3 on the final lap, which spun Logano from the race lead. In the next corner, Dillon right-hooked Denny Hamlin as the two were side-by-side with the checkered flag in sight. The victory, Dillon’s first since August 2022 in Daytona, took him from 32nd in the Cup Series standings to the postseason.
“I was just trying to get to him,” Dillon said of the first contact with Logano. “I went into Turn 3 in fifth gear and drove in, tried to get him loose, and got him up the track. I got the car downshifted, and the car actually turned pretty good when I did that, and then when I was coming back left, [Hamlin] was coming and that was just kind of a reaction.
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“The No. 22 [Logano] was trying to get him loose but the No. 11 [Hamlin] was more just a reaction, and I wasn’t lifting at that point because I was more looking at where [Logano] was. When the No. 11 came across, it was just a reaction.”
Dillon did not recall hearing instructions to “wreck him” over his team’s in-car radio coming off Turn 4. The audio quickly went viral, leading to questions and criticism for Dillon and his team.
“Dude, at that point, I’m elbows up, holding the throttle down, just trying to get to the start/finish line. Literally,” Dillon said. “I am sideways off of [Turn] 4 because I’m always three-quarters of a lane up the track, hammer the gas, and I’m just looking at the start/finish line. That’s it. I ain’t hearing [expletive] at that point.
“Your eyes turn red. You see red. You get to the end of the race. Daytona, last lap, when I won there at the 500 – your eyes see red. There’s one thing on your mind: get to the start/finish line first. Period. No matter if anybody came on the radio. It doesn’t matter. You have one job to do – to get to the start/finish line first. A lot of people lose their jobs because they don’t get to the start/finish line first.”
The overtime restart put Dillon on the offensive. Dillon had taken the lead of the race with 28 laps to go and was in control of the field when the final caution came with two laps to go when Ryan Preece was spun by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Dillon’s No. 3 team kept him in the top spot during the final round of pit stops.
But Logano cleared Dillon through Turns 1 and 2 on the restart. Dillon came from what Logano said was three or four car lengths behind entering Turn 3 on the lap to make contact.
Logano called for the victory to be taken away. NASCAR will review the finish. However, Dillon was unapologetic for how he succeeded, seeing no difference in what his competition had done in the past.
“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 drove in there and kept all four tires turning across the start/finish line. I’ve seen a lot of stuff over the years in NASCAR where people move people, and it’s just part of our sport.
“Remember when Joey said, ‘[that’s] short-track racing’? He knows what it was. In your shoes, what would you do?”