Austin Dillon Wins at Richmond, Loses Playoff Berth

Austin Dillon enjoyed the fruits of his Cook Out 400 victory at Richmond but at a great cost. (Photo: Jennie Mae Lingle | The Podium Finish)a

RICHMOND, Va. — Austin Dillon sent it when it came to his No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet Camaro ZL1’s final lap moves to win Sunday night’s Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway.

Initially, Dillon, who had one of his strongest performances of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season, started sixth and finished seventh and fifth in Stages 1 and 2. Clearly, the 34-year-old Welcome, North Carolina, native had one of the best cars in the series’ first race back since the two-week Paris Olympics break.

Going into Sunday’s race, Dillon ranked 32nd in points. Realistically, he needed to win a race to make the 16 driver Cup Playoffs field with an insurmountable points difference between himself and the 16th, final Playoffs spot.

While Dillon was making his presence known toward the front of the field, Christopher Bell and Daniel Suárez established themselves as the frontrunners of the race alongside Denny Hamlin, the 2024 Toyota Owners 400 winner.

For the majority of the 23rd round of the season, the 0.75-miler looked like the site of another win for Bell or Hamlin. Leading a combined 246 of the 408 laps run, the Joe Gibbs Racing duo were a dominant duo who faced some challenges from Suárez of Trackhouse Racing and Dillon of Richard Childress Racing.

Inside the race’s initial final 29 laps, Hamlin’s lead was in danger with Dillon pressing him hard. Completing the pass, Dillon pulled away and seemed en route to an easy, dominant win that would save his season.

On Lap 399, contact between Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Ryan Preece in Turn 2 resulted in the race’s third overall caution and first for an on-track incident. Most of all, it resulted in a NASCAR Overtime restart.

Dillon and Logano bested Hamlin out of pit road for the race’s final, critical pit stops, resulting in a restart that had the makings of last spring’s dramatics. This time, the drama level was ratcheted further up the meter.

Going into Turn 3, Logano, who bested Dillon on the Overtime restart, had at least a three or four car length lead. Then, Dillon rooted Logano out of the lead, sending the latter into the Turn 4 wall.

Austin Dillon celebrated his fifth career NASCAR Cup Series win at Richmond Raceway. (Photo: Jennie Mae Lingle | The Podium Finish)

Hamlin initially got past the Turn 4 fracas before Dillon made contact with the Chesterfield, Virginia, native’s car. Hamlin crashed into the frontstretch wall while Dillon drove to a controversial victory.

Initially, on Sunday night, Dillon celebrated his first win since the 2022 Coke Zero Sugar 400 with his family and excitement on the frontstretch.

“I don’t know, man. It’s been two years. This is the first car I’ve had with a shot to win,” Dillon said to NASCAR on USA pit reporter Marty Snider. “I felt like with two to go, we were the fastest car. Obviously had to have a straightaway. Wrecked the guy. I hate to do that, but sometimes you just got to have it.

“I got to thank the good Lord above. It’s been tough for the last two years, man. I care about RCR, these fans, my wife. This is my first for my baby girl. It means a lot. I hate it, but I had to do it. Whatever it takes. Whatever it takes.”

Richard Childress, team owner and Dillon’s grandfather, reflected on the win and considered how the Dominion State’s short track has been home to controversial moments before dispelling the audio between Dillon and spotter Brandon Benesch.

Austin Dillon gets a congratulatory greeting from Richard Childress following Sunday night’s Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway in Richmond, Virginia. (Photo: Jennie Mae Lingle | The Podium Finish)

“Well, I don’t know what you could compare it to,” Childress said. “I mean, I can go back and history. I’ve seen a lot of it before. I can’t sit here and pick one. It’s racing. They would do it to him, I promise you. If he would have been leading it, that 22 would have moved him out of the way. The 11 would have moved him out of the way. Either one of them would have done the same thing. I’ve seen it before.

“You have to. Seen it right here at Richmond. Clint Bowyer won the race the night I think it was 88 and 18 knocked each other out of the way. He come under ’em and won the race on the last lap. You just think back of history.

“I’d like to go back to that Internet deal. No one, I promise you, on our radio… Somebody may have put it on there or come up with something. But nobody told him to wreck him. I never said a word, I promise you. I know he didn’t, ’cause I was listening to our radio. No one said that. You know how the Internet goes? I’ve heard all kinds of things. You have, too. So that answers that.”

Logano, who placed 19th, did not mince words after the race. Fined $50,000 for his actions on pit road during post-race, the two-time Cup champion was peeved.

“It’s chicken shit,” Logano said. “There’s no doubt about it. He is four car lengths back, not even close. Then he wrecks the 11 to go along with it. Then he’s going to go up there and thank God and praise everything with his baby. It’s a bunch of BS. It’s not even freakin’ close.

“Dude, I get it, bump-n-run. I get it. I didn’t back up the corner at all. He came in there and just drove through me. It’s ridiculous that that’s the way we race. Unbelievable. I get bump-n-runs. I do that. I would expect it. But from four car lengths back, he was never going to make the corner. Then he wrecks the other car, wrecks the 11 to go with it. What a piece of crap.”

Without any decisions doled out by NASCAR initially after the race, Logano expressed his frustrations with the Lap 408 incident with Dillon.

Joey Logano did not hold back with his thoughts on Austin Dillon’s maneuvers at Richmond Raceway. (Photo: Jennie Mae Lingle | The Podium Finish)

“When you get that far ahead that’s three to four car lengths ahead into [Turn] 3,” Logano recalled. “I even backed up the entry. 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.”

Scoring a runner-up result at Richmond, Hamlin was perturbed by Dillon’s driving tactics on Lap 408. He did not seem too confident in the sanctioning body’s ability to render a penalty against Dillon and his No. 3 team.

“Absolutely, a line was crossed, but it is an invisible line, and it is not defined,” Hamlin said. “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 is fine.

“That is why we see some of the lower series turnout the way they do in these green-white checkered situations because some of the best that they are seeing on Sunday do stuff like that. Who am I to throw stones at a glass house, but I’ve certainly never won one that way.”

Following the race, Elton Sawyer, NASCAR senior vice president of competition, and his team reviewed the video, audio and SMT data from Sunday night’s frantic finish. On Wednesday evening, NASCAR announced that Dillon and his No. 3 team would respectively be penalized 25 driver and owner points. More importantly, Dillon’s win, while it stood, will not count toward the Playoffs in the driver’s and owner’s standings.

“He’ll be credited for the win. He gets to keep the trophy. But he’s just not eligible for the Playoffs,” Sawyer said to NASCAR.com’s Kim Coon. “I think in all due respect to the appeal process, we look at this and the totality of everything that happened as you entered Turn 3 and as the cars got to the start/finish line.

“So, as we looked through all of that data, we came to the conclusion that a line had been crossed. Our sport has been based on, for many, many years, forever, on good, hard racing. Contact has been acceptable. We felt like in this case that a line was crossed.”

Although Sawyer understood the high emotions and intensity prevalent within NASCAR, having been a competitive racer in the NASCAR XFINITY Series, he explained how Dillon’s last lap maneuvers lacked integrity and crossed an unspoken line.

Denny Hamlin tallied an eventful runner-up in an Overtime skirmish that Elton Sawyer deemed as crossing the line by Austin Dillon. (Photo: Jennie Mae Lingle | The Podium Finish)

“In our view, that crossed a line, without a doubt,” he said. “Our sport has been based on strong emotions. It’s been based off win and you’re in. But anything that we feel like, from a sanctioning body, that has crossed a line from a standpoint that compromises of our Playoff format and our championship, we are going to get involved.”

Richard Childress Racing, via their X account, announced that the penalty would be appealed by their organization.

In the meantime, Sawyer made it clear how the sanctioning body made its decision with the levied penalties.

“The magnitude of this decision needed us to get back, get all the information, be able to work with all of our stakeholders, work with the folks in the industry that have a great deal of experience, gather all of that information, and then sit down and make a NASCAR decision,” Sawyer said. “And that’s what we did, starting [on] Sunday night, gathering the information, meeting again on Monday and yesterday, and finally last night, coming into a conclusion on where we landed on the penalty.”

Now, Dillon and his No. 3 Richard Childress Racing team, lodging an appeal with NASCAR’s decision, focus on Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Michigan. Dillon will vie for a secure spot in the Playoffs, regardless of the appeal’s outcome, while Chris Buescher hopes to defend his victory for RFK Racing.

Stage 1 Top 10 Results

1. Christopher Bell
2. Denny Hamlin
3. Martin Truex Jr.
4. Joey Logano
5. Bubba Wallace
6. Chase Elliott
7. Austin Dillon
8. Chris Buescher
9. Tyler Reddick
10. Josh Berry

Stage 2 Top 10 Results

1. Daniel Suárez
2. Christopher Bell
3. Denny Hamlin
4. Joey Logano
5. Austin Dillon
6. Michael McDowell
7. Tyler Reddick
8. Bubba Wallace
9. Carson Hocevar
10. Chase Elliott

Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway Race Results