Austin Dillon reached victory lane Sunday at Richmond Raceway, something he hadn’t achieved since the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season, but Dillon’s win came at a price for two of his fellow competitors. For Joey Logano, who was leading heading into the final Turn of the race, it ended with a 19th-place finish. And for Denny Hamlin, who looked to be skirting his way past Dillon after his aggressive move, the price was a blown-out shoulder after Dillon hooked him in the right rear as the two were charging toward the finish line in the Cook Out 400.
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The finish didn’t pass the smell test for a bunch of folks within the sport from fellow competitors, to media members, to legendary drivers such as Mark Martin, to the fans themselves.
To some, it was almost unfathomable that NASCAR was going to let the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet Camaro head to victory lane following the final-lap shenanigans. But Dillon went to victory lane, took the photos, got the trophy, and conducted his post-race press conferences. No issues.
Elton Sawyer, NASCAR’s Senior Vice President of competition, says that the sport has always been a contact sport, and while he admits the finish was close to the line, he feels, at least at first glance that Dillon didn’t cross the line on his path to crossing the finish line first on Sunday evening.
NASCAR’s Elton Sawyer on the final lap and possible penalties: pic.twitter.com/7p8AAmjdSp
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) August 12, 2024
“I thought the last lap, that’s something that — you know, our sport has been a contact sport for a long time. We always hear, ‘Where’s the line?’ and ‘Did someone cross the line?’ I would say the last lap was awfully close to the line.”
NASCAR will do its due diligence in the aftermath of Sunday’s chaotic finish as Sawyer says the sanctioning body will use all of the tools at its disposal to make sure nothing nefarious took place on the final lap of the race at Richmond.
“We’ll take a look at all of the available resources, from audio and video. The spotters, we’re listening to the crew chief and drivers. If anything rises to a level that we feel like we need to penalize, then we’ll do that on Tuesday.”
The big question mark for many is in regards to the audio from Dillon’s spotter Brandon Benesch, where he is heard saying, “Wreck him,” just before Dillon swerves into Denny Hamlin, who was attempting to pass Dillon for the win as Logano was spinning.
Here is the audio in question synced up with the video of the incident:
I guess the precedent has been set that intentionally wrecking multiple drivers, including the forbidden right hook while your spotter yells “WRECK HIM” is now legal pic.twitter.com/fibMSAy2Rs
— Ryan Pistana (@ryanpistana) August 12, 2024
In their post-race press conferences, Austin Dillon and Richard Childress denied that anyone shouted, “Wreck him,” on the team radio, and Dillon said he didn’t hear anything. He simply saw red and was thinking about doing whatever it took to win the race.
Whatever it took included hooking Hamlin in the right rear, which is another reason many are calling for sanctions of some kind as NASCAR has set the precedent of penalizing drivers in recent years for those types of moves.
Will there be a penalty of some kind for Dillon? That remains to be seen. It’ll all depend on how NASCAR views how the finish played out with all of the video and in-car audio at its disposal.
