NASCAR to Review Finish at Richmond to Determine if Austin Dillon…

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.