RICHMOND, Va. — Austin Dillon raced to his first NASCAR Cup Series victory in nearly two years, wrecking Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin into a spin on the final lap to win in overtime at Richmond on Sunday night.
It was Dillon’s 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 postseason — but he didn’t do it gently.
“I hate to do that, but sometimes you just got to have it,” Dillon said.
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 end 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 behind Logano and spun him — and when Denny Hamlin appeared to be moving past him on the inside, Dillon made contact with him too and sent him into the wall.
Dillon emerged from all that chaos with a victory in his No. 3 Chevrolet.