It’s lap 399 of 400. After a late-race restart under the lights of Richmond Raceway, you’ve just lost the lead to a bitter rival. You haven’t won a NASCAR Cup Series race since 2022 and currently sit 32nd in the points standings. Your grandfather, legendary team owner Richard Childress, is watching from pit road as your iconic #3 Chevrolet sweeps down the banking of turn four to take the white flag. Should you simply watch another chance at a playoff-securing win slip away? Or take matters into your own hands…?
This was the decision that 34-year-old North Carolina native Austin Dillon was presented with last night in Virginia as he saw Joey Logano’s #22 Penske Ford sprint towards victory. Dillon made his choice and, predictably, chaos ensued.
First Dillon went long on the brakes, sliding into Logano’s rear corner to push him up the racetrack and towards the wall. As both leading cars lost pace, Denny Hamlin’s #11 car must have seen the headlines as he kept the foot flat to the floor to usurp the victory after leading 124 laps across the night. Those headlines, though, were quickly rewritten as Dillon swept back to the low line and wrecked him too before going on to take the win by 0.116 seconds.
Now, for the most part, this sort of driving is par for the course in NASCAR. There is no direct rule against contact on track, or wrecking another driver for your own gain as long as the danger level of the crash doesn’t reach into violence.
Joey Logano in pit lane after the crash (© Sean Gardner/Getty Images)
Immediately after the race, Logano was rightfully incensed by the injustice of the incident:
‘It’s chicken s**t. 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… It’s a bunch of BS. It’s not even freakin’ close.’
Logano rushed over to the race direction truck to plead his case. Though such pleas seemingly fell on deaf ears.
Alongside the lack of regulations on contact between cars in NASCAR, there is also no rule, or very minimal enforcement of any rule, against settling these interpersonal disagreements with a classic playground scrap rather than the bitter passive aggression we’re used to in European open-wheel classes. We’ve seen many over the years.
Austin Dillon celebrates his win (© Sean Gardner/Getty Images)
Dillon’s post-race words to the media showcased the complexity of emotions after winning in that matter but emphasised the personal meaning of getting back onto the top step of the sport:
‘I don’t know man, it’s been two years and this is the first car I’ve had a shot to win with.‘I felt like with two to go, we were the fastest car…
‘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 [win] for my baby girl. It means a lot. I hate it, but
I had to do it.’
Do unto others as you would have done to yourself, an eye for an eye, what goes around comes around – there are a plethora of platitudes that could encapsulate the moral of this story. Luckily we won’t have to wait long to see its on-track consequences as the series gets back underway next weekend for the Firekeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway.
