The 2024 season has been a bit like trying to polish a rusted old pickup for Richard Childress Racing. And while everyone’s been watching RCR’s apparent star, Kyle Busch, stumble around the track like he’s forgotten what a race car is, Austin Dillon said, ‘hey, what about me?’ Sunday night.
Dillon capped off a rare strong weekend for the team by breaking a 68-race winless streak passing the hometown hero, and polesitter Denny Hamlin with under 30 laps to go before cruising—and then bashing his way—to the checkered flag.
But it was a victory not without some ruffled feathers and a trainload full of controversy.
After only seeing cautions for Stage breaks all race long the events only natural caution came out with just under two laps to go when Ryan Preece and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. got together just in front of Dillon setting up an overtime finish.
It sent the leaders in for a chaotic round of pit stops with Dillon holding serve coming back out. He lined up alongside Joey Logano who probably had flashbacks to the spring race when Hamlin snatched a win right out from under him.
On the restart Logano was able to get in front of Dillon and held the spot but coming into Turn 3 after taking the white flag Dillon got into Logano sending Logano into the outside wall. That opened the door for Hamlin underneath but was promptly shoved into the wall by Dillon as Dillon charged across the line for the win.
“I don’t know, man. It’s been two years,” Dillon said. “This is the first car I’ve had with a shot to win. I felt like with two to go, we were the fastest car. Obviously had to have a straightaway. Wrecked the guy. I hate to do that, but sometimes you just got to have it.”
After leading Saturday’s practice session and starting 6th, and in the interest of fairness, Dillon did lead more laps-35, than he had since 2020 and was firmly in control with just over 2 laps to go so a win seem destined. But after the overtime chaos, the win left a terrible taste in many mouths starting with Logano who was again denied a Richmond win.
“It’s chicken shit,” Logano said. “There’s no doubt about it. 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.”
As if the ending wasn’t enough drama Sunday’s race marked the first time NASCAR gave teams different tire compounds in a points paying race. A Primary, harder, tire meant to last longer but isn’t as fast, and a softer Option tire, quicker but with a shorter life.
Daniel Suarez was the first to roll the dice, switching to Option tires. During the first Stage break he came in outside the top 15 and was the first driver to swap to the Option tires. When the green came back out, he launched like an Apollo rocket heading to the moon and after restarting 16th by lap 92 he shot past Christopher Bell –who won Stage 1– like the Joe Gibbs Racing driver was sitting at a highway rest stop.
Michael McDowell joined Suarez in the Option game, and he restarted even further back after a speeding penalty sent him to the rear of the field. By lap 105 Suarez had a three second lead over Bell and McDowell was 7th.
Suarez would go on to win Stage 2 handily.
But like all experiments, it didn’t last. When the green flag stops began on lap 122, both Bell and Suarez switched back to the Primary tires, and Bell found himself back in the lead, with Suarez hanging onto second. Other teams tried the Option tires too, but none of them got the same rocket-like results as Suarez and McDowell. Several, including Kyle Larson, decided to stay out longer in an attempt to try something different.
Tyler Reddick briefly took the lead followed by Larson as another round of green flag stops started on lap 175. But with older tires he was no match for Suarez who now energized by his Option track position re-took the lead on lap 186, followed by Bell in second.
Hamlin, who started from pole and is a five-time winner at Richmond, and normally dominates at the short track reasserted his mastery taking the top spot from Suarez on lap 293 Hamlin would go on to lead a race high 124 laps.
Dillon came alive with just over 75 laps to go charging past Logano for second and looking forward to leader Hamlin. Like a hound chasing a fox, Dillon nipped at Hamlin in the closing laps grabbing the top spot with 28 laps to go. With 15 to go Dillon was checking out and had a lead of 2.3 seconds.
But Saurez saved his second set of Option tires and looked for a repeat performance from earlier in the race. He spent the final laps fighting his way back to the front. With 15 laps to go, Suarez was just over 10 seconds behind the leaders and just inside the top 5.
Toyota’s confidence goes up in smoke as Truex exits Richmond early
It all ended in a last-minute caution that left broken cars, hurt feelings, booing fans, and drivers, and a race with a finish that will be talked about around the water cooler all week long,
Hamlin was credited with finishing second, Reddick third, Bubba Wallace fourth and Ross Chastin fifth.
“Well, it’s obviously foul,” Hamlin said. “It’s fair in NASCAR. We’re just a different league, right? There is no penalties for rough driving or anything like that. It opens up the opportunity for Austin to be able to just do whatever he wants.”
Bell, Larson, Carson Hocevar and Chase Elliott were sixth through ninth. Daniel Suarez was slowed by the final carnage and managed only 10th place for his efforts.
Martin Truex Jr. was the only driver who finished in the garage. Continuing a sad tale of broken engines for Toyota, Truex had the engine in his Toyota implode on lap 250.
RACE RESULTS
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.