NASCAR to Review Finish at Richmond to Determine if Austin Dillon Crossed the Line

After Austin Dillon's controversial win after a pair of aggressive moves on the final lap of Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway, Elton Sawyer, NASCAR's Vice President of Competition, was made available to the media to speak about the overtime finish.

Sawyer says that while what Dillon did was close to crossing the line as far as what is acceptable on the track, he feels at the moment that Dillon's moves were in the spirit of NASCAR's history of being a contact sport.

"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," Sawyer explained.

Following back-to-back moves that crashed Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin on the final lap, Dillon took a trip to Richmond's victory lane, where he collected his first trophy since the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season.

With the win vaulting Dillon from 32nd in the championship standings heading into the night to now being locked into the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, the moves were unquestionably going to be analyzed. Sawyer says while it feels the moves were legal, NASCAR will look at all of the resources at its disposal including video and audio to determine if Dillon crossed the line or not.

If there are any penalties stemming from the last-lap drama, they will be announced early in the week.

"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," Sawyer stated.

In his post-race media availability, Richard Childress chalked the last lap chaos up to being a racing deal, and he feels if the shoe was on the other foot, Logano and Hamlin would have done the same thing to Dillon for the race win.

"It's racing. They would do it to him," Childress explained. "I promise you if he would have been leading, that 22 would have moved him out of the way. That 11 would have moved him out of the way. Either one of them would have done the same thing. I've seen it before, and you have too."

While a competitor may have bump-and-runned Dillon for the win, would they have gone to the lengths that Dillon did to win the race? We'll never know for sure. But Sunday's finish does seem to be an extreme case of doing whatever it takes to win a race.

However, the uproar began to pour in on social media when suspicions were raised on Dillon's intent as spotter Brandon Benesch is overheard on the team radio saying, "Wreck him," just before Dillon swerved to the left and hooked Hamlin into the outside wall after spinning Logano from the race lead.

In his post-race media press conference, Richard Childress denied that anybody said, "Wreck him," on the team radio to Dillon, but the evidence is clear that the words were uttered.

It's simply a question of whether Dillon heard the words and reacted to them with intent when he hooked Hamlin.

According to Dillon, if his spotter told him to wreck someone, he didn't hear it as he was focused on doing whatever it took to pull off his first win in two seasons.

"Dude, at that point, I'm elbows up, holding the throttle down just trying to get to the start-finish line," Dillon explained. "Literally. I am sideways off of [Turn] 4, because I'm already three quarters of a lane up the track. Hammer the gas, and I'm just looking at the start-finish line, and that's it. I ain't hearing shit at that point. You know, your eyes turn red. You see red, and you get to the end of the race."

NASCAR will likely be able to determine any intent via SMT data, coupled with video and audio. If Dillon is cleared, there will be no penalties. If he isn't there will. And that will be the end of the debate.

But for now, Austin Dillon has claimed his fifth career NASCAR Cup Series win, and with it, he will be in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs for the fifth time in his 11-year NASCAR Cup Series career.

Photo Credit: Andrew Coppley, HHP for Chevy Racing