Dillon And Childress Defend Wrecking Logano’s NASCAR Ford

Austin Dillon, driver of the No. 3 Chevy Silverado RST, sparked a controversy when he won at Richmond on August 11^th, 2024. In the last lap, heading to the checkers, Dillon dove across the rear bumper of Joey Logano’s No. 22 NASCAR Ford Mustang Dark Horse, sending Logano for a spin and snuffing out his shot at winning the race before doing the same to Denny Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota TRD Camry. Dillon later defended his actions, and so did his team owner – and grandfather – Richard Childress.

According to a postrace report from NASCAR.com, Dillon brushed off criticism for his polarizing move. “I’ve seen Denny and Joey make moves that have been running people up the track to win,” he said. “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.”

He added, “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’ [at Martinsville in 2019]. He knows what it was. In your shoes, what would you do?”

In-car communications revealed that Dillon’s spotter advised the driver of the No. 3 Chevy to “wreck him” as he rode up on Logano’s bumper and later took off after Hamlin. Dillon said that he tuned out everything with the checkered flag in sight and didn’t heed his spotter, saying, “I’m just looking at the start/finish line. That’s it. I ain’t hearing [expletive] at that point, you know?”

Childress, meanwhile, denied the spotter’s call when the radio transmission was brought to his attention.

“I never heard it on our radio, unless somebody was making it up,” Childress said. “I didn’t hear it. Did you? Not on our No. 1 (radio) channel, No. 2 channel, no one said that. If you believe in everything you hear on the Internet, I’m not Santa Claus if it ever comes up. Probably somebody just saying it, put it in there.”

As of this writing, no penalties have been announced. Logano’s No. 22 NASCAR Ford finished 19^th after the wreck.

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