‘It’s Chicken S***’: Logano, Hamlin Admonish Dillon’s Overtime Aggression

By David Morgan, Associate Editor

Don’t count on Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin to be applying for membership in the Austin Dillon fan club.

In Sunday’s Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway, Dillon was racing for his Playoff life, having gone from a near lock to win in the closing laps of regulation to having to battle it out amongst two of the best in overtime.

For Dillon, it was win or bust, with his current points position making it that his only path to the Playoffs would have to come through a victory. With no guarantee that he would be in position to do so again in the three races remaining before the end of the regular season, Dillon took matters into his own hands to ensure his place in the postseason.

Lining up alongside Logano on the overtime restart, with Hamlin falling in behind him on the inside of the second row, Dillon was overtaken when the green flag flew for the final two lap sprint to the finish as Logano got the jump and was able to ascend to the lead.

Try as he might, Dillon was unable to get by Logano for the first lap and a half and with one corner to go, he charged down into Turn 3 with reckless abandon in his final attempt at surpassing Logano to retake the lead and take the win for himself.

Contact between Dillon’s front bumper and Logano’s rear bumper sent Logano spinning up the track, causing Dillon to have to check up to avoid being collected himself, bringing Hamlin into the picture, as he looked to have a clear path to drive right past the both of them and on to the checkered flag.

However, Dillon kept his foot in the gas, turning down the track and tagging Hamlin’s right rear, sending him into the outside wall, clearing the way for him to come out on top in the end.

The victory cemented Dillon’s place in the Playoffs, breaking a winless streak dating back to Daytona in August 2022 and elevating him from 32^nd place in the points to do so.

As Dillon celebrated the win on the frontstretch, Logano and Hamlin both fumed on pit road watching the replay with Dillon’s burnout as background noise.

“It’s chicken shit. There’s no doubt about it,” Logano said. “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.”

Logano would be credited with a 19^th place finish when all was said and done. Meanwhile, Hamlin would end the night with a runner-up result at his home track, nearly pulling off the season sweep.

“It’s obviously foul, but it is fair in NASCAR,” Hamlin said of Dillon’s actions. “It is a different league. There are no penalties for rough driving or anything like that, so it opens up the opportunity for Austin (Dillon) to just do whatever he wants.

“The problem that I have is I got hooked in the right rear again. I’m just minding my own business, and he turned left, and he hooked me in the right rear and blew my damn shoulder out. I don’t know.

“The record book won’t care about what happened. He is going to be credited with a win. He is just not going to go far because you have to pay your dues back on stuff like that, but it is worth it because they jumped 20 positions in points, so I understand all that. There is no ill will there. I get it. I just hate that I was a part of it.

“It would have been fun if I was not one of the two guys that got taken out on the last corner, but I understand it. It doesn’t mean I have to agree with it. We will talk about it tomorrow.”

Hamlin added that Dillon crossed the line with his move and while it may be legal in terms of the rules, it sets a bad example for drivers in the lower divisions to follow as they climb the ranks themselves.

“Absolutely, a line was crossed, but it is an invisible line, and it is not defined. They have rules and provisions for stuff like this, but they never take action for it,” Hamlin said.

“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.”

On the other side of the argument, Dillon and those in the No. 3 camp, including his team owner and grandfather noted that he had to do what he had to do to secure the win, consequences be damned.

“I knew what he knew he had to do going in,” Childress said. “They would have done it to him, you know? It’s one of those deals that when it comes down to winning a race and you’re in that position, you’re hungry, you do what it takes. That’s what I told him all his life.”

Dillon added that he isn’t the first to make the sort of move he did to win, and while it drew the ire of his fellow competitors, it has become the name of the game on these types of tracks as of late.

“I’ve seen Denny and Joey make moves that have been running people up the track to win. This is 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,” Dillon said.

“To me, I’ve seen a lot of stuff over the years in NASCAR where people move people. It’s just part of our sport. You know what I mean? Remember when Joey said ‘short-track racing’. He knows what it was.

“In your shoes, what would you do?”