Austin Dillon has not had a great season, but it got a little bit worse on Lap 106 of the NASCAR Cup Series’s Highpoint.com 400 at Pocono Raceway on Sunday (July 23).
While racing for a spot in the top ten, Dillon was three-wide with former teammate Tyler Reddick and Brad Keselowski. Reddick entered turn one deep to the inside of Dillon and got into him, sending the No. 3 careening hard into the outside wall.
Dillon seemed okay after the accident, and after exiting the car, he expressed his displeasure in a classic way.
Channeling his inner Tony Stewart, Dillon chucked his helmet across the track at the No. 45. He missed entirely, but the sentiment was there.
“I mean it is what is man. Everybody races each other like that. At this point I really don’t know. I thought I was doing the right thing just going into the middle lane of the track. I wasn’t on the bottom lane. I was going to hold the middle. He drove up into me from the bottom lane,” Dillon told Frontstretch.
“I’m pissed about it because from my perspective I couldn’t see him. I know I was three wide but my left front is in front of him. I didn’t come down egregiously. He drove into the corner deep enough to try and get me back, like to get his right front in front of my left front. That was not possible with how I drove in the corner and he wiped me out in the fastest part of the track.”
Dillon also told NBC Sports that, “he was going to have to start wrecking some people.”
Reddick did compliment the helmet throw over the radio after it happened.
Dillon will likely finish 34th.
Garrett joined Frontstretch as a news writer in 2023, and became a fantasy racing and betting writer in 2024. Hailing from the heart of coal country in southern West Virginia, he's a married father of three and currently enrolled in the Physical Therapy Assistant Program at New River Community Technical College in Beaver, WV.
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Dillion is like Hamlin,never takes responsibility anything that he does. He moved down on Reddick.
He may not want to admit it, but he clearly came down on Reddick.
There’s no doubt the pressure’s getting to him. Once again this season he’s being shown up by a teammate, showing just how average (at best) a driver he is. Driving for his grandfather you know he has to be getting the best equipment possible, and yet year after year he has teammates that make him look bad. It has to be growing old, and be wearing on him.
His version of the incident smacks of Hamlin’s version of wrecking Larson. Both were pure self-serving BS.
He should face a stiff penalty for throwing his helmet into traffic. Points or even a one race penalty won’t hurt him because he’s not going to make the playoffs anyway.
It needs to be a substantial fine, that he, not Pam paw has to pay.