Sunday’s race at Richmond Raceway ended in drama, with an overtime restart causing chaos as drivers battled for the win and a playoff spot.
Joey Logano passed Austin Dillon on the overtime restart with just two laps left and quickly extended his lead.
On the final lap, Dillon let off the brake pedal in turn three and drove into the bumper of race leader Logano. Logano spun.
Denny Hamlin looked under Dillon after the first incident. Dillon veered left, hit Hamlin in the right rear and slammed him into the wall.
Although two cars had retired, Dillon survived and drove to victory.
“This is cowardly shit! There’s no doubt about it,” Joey Logano told NBC Sports.
“It’s obviously a foul. But in NASCAR it’s fair. We’re just in a different league,” explained Denny Hamlin.
Hear from NASCAR below.
Richmond Results: August 11, 2024 (NASCAR Cup Series)
Elton Sawyer comments
“Our sport has long been a contact sport,” NASCAR’s Elton Sawyer said after the race.
“We always hear, ‘Where is the finish line?’ And, ‘Did anyone cross the finish line?’ I would say the last lap was awfully close to the finish line.”
“We will look at all available resources from audio to video. If anything gets so bad that we feel it needs to be punished, we will do that on Tuesday.”
“Historically, it hasn’t been our nature to take away wins. But that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t set a precedent in the future. We would have to look at it.”
“It happened quickly. But in my opinion that’s almost too much.”
Joey Logano was upset after the race. He did a long burnout right next to the No. 3 crew on pit road. When Logano got out of his car, he was yelled at by an official.
“We don’t want to make a split-second decision and be wrong. We’ll look at everything that happened on the last lap and after the race and see if there are any penalties that need to be imposed,” Sawyer said of Logano’s burnout.
The video of the last round can be found here
Denny Hamlin comments on Austin Dillon’s move
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Austin Dillon | Joey Logano | Denny Hamlin | Richmond Raceway | NASCAR
