Desperate to win for the first time in nearly two years — and with the race suddenly slipping away — Austin Dillon sent two cars into the wall in rapid succession.
The result was a season-changing victory, an avalanche of controversy and at least two veteran drivers who were absolutely furious.
Dillon raced and bumped his way to victory Sunday night, sending Joey Logano into a spin on the final lap to win in overtime at Richmond. It was his first win since Aug. 28, 2022, at Daytona. He had just two top-10 finishes this year and entered the race ranked 32nd in the standings. Now he’s on track for the playoffs — but he didn’t get there gently.
Dillon appeared to be cruising to a victory when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Ryan Preece collided, forcing the first caution of the entire 400-lap, 300-mile race aside from the prescheduled ones after the ends of the first two stages.
So the drivers went to overtime, and Logano clearly got the better of Dillon on the restart. Then Dillon came up directly behind Logano and spun him.
The 11 was Denny Hamlin, who appeared to be moving past Dillon on the inside after Dillon bumped Logano’s No. 22 car. Then Dillon hit the back right part of Hamlin’s car and put him into the wall, too.
Dillon emerged from all the chaos with a victory in his No. 3 Chevrolet. That number was famously driven — often aggressively — by Dale Earnhardt. But times have changed since Earnhardt’s heyday, and Elton Sawyer, NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition, made it clear the end of this race would be looked at.
Dillon appeared on his way to a much less controversial win after passing Hamlin for the lead with 29 laps to go. But then the Stenhouse-Preece crash and subsequent restart left Dillon in danger of an agonizing defeat.
Hamlin finished second, followed by Tyler Reddick, Bubba Wallace and Ross Chastain. Dillon’s victory was not good news for Wallace and the other drivers on the playoff bubble.
Christopher Bell won the first stage, but he was later penalized for speeding on pit road and finished sixth. Daniel Suárez won the second stage.
Martin Truex Jr. was knocked from the race by engine trouble early in the final stage. He remains the top winless driver in the standings.
Next week the series goes north to Michigan.
