In one of the wildest finishes in the history of Richmond Raceway, Austin Dillon locked himself into the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs after a last corner melee.
On the race’s overtime restart, it was Joey Logano who took the race lead. However, going into turn 3 on the final lap, Dillon hit Logano, sending the No. 22 spinning and opening up a lane for Denny Hamlin. However, Dillon hooked Hamlin in the race’s final hundred feet, sending Hamlin into the wall and putting Dillon in victory lane.
Tyler Reddick finished in the runner-up spot, with Bubba Wallace, Ross Chastain and Hamlin rounding out the top five. Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson, Carson Hocevar, Chase Elliott and Daniel Suarez made up the rest of the top 10.
It was Hamlin who led the first 45 laps of the race, but a fellow Toyota in Bell took advantage of lapped traffic to catch and pass his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate for the race lead. Despite a tense moment with Justin Haley, Bell would go on to win a relatively uneventful stage one that saw both Wallace and Chris Buescher gain crucial stage points in their quest to make the Cup Series playoffs. The stage victory was Bell’s 10th of the 2024 season.
While Bell got off of pit road first, he hit the No. 43 of Erik Jones after exiting his pit stall, incurring damage on the left front of his No. 20. Bell wasn’t the only driver to have trouble on the first round of pit stops, however, as Wallace was once more plagued by pit crew issues, losing seven spots on the first stop of the day.
Suarez and Michael McDowell were the first drivers to put on the softer option tires. The move paid off after the restart for the No. 99 of Suarez, as he quickly made his way into the top five. McDowell would also quickly move up, driving his way from 28th to inside the top 20 in just 15 laps.
Hamlin would take the lead from Bell on the restart, but Suarez’s option tires catapulted him to the lead on lap 93 as McDowell passed Ty Gibbs to move inside the top 15. The veteran moved into the top 10 by lap 101 and continued to easily pass his competitors to move up to seventh.
Chase Briscoe would be the first driver to pit under green on lap 122, with second-place Bell choosing to pit right after. Austin Cindric turned out to be the next taker of the option tire, while Suarez would choose to take off the option tire and put the prime tires back on. Josh Berry also decided to put the option tires on, though the majority of the field opted to stick with the prime tires.
Buescher would fall outside of the top 25 after green flag pit stops, as the No. 17 crew failed to get the left-front lug nut on Buescher’s Ford Mustang tight.
While Larson ran long, Bell took the lead back with Suarez in tow. Larson and Reddick would both pit on lap 150.
Martin Truex Jr.‘s second stop of stage two was slow, as the No. 19 nearly went on the track with a loose wheel. While Truex didn’t lose a wheel, he fell out of the top 10 before recovering to finish 11th in stage two.
Suarez would take the lead from Reddick, while Bell would quickly pounce on Reddick to take the second spot. Suarez went on to win the stage with Bell finishing close behind in second. Wallace was the highest-finishing playoff bubble driver in the stage, earning three stage points with an eighth-place finish.
Bell would beat Suarez off pit road, with most of the field deciding to put the option tire on at the start of of stage three. While Bell cleared Hamlin for the lead on the restart, the middle of the pack saw a chaotic few laps, with Suarez nearly getting turned on the backstretch. Suarez’s prime tires were no match for a field largely on the softer option tire, and the No. 99 dropped through the field like a rock early in the run.
Truex radioed in an engine issue on lap 249, saying that his No. 19 Toyota was low on power. Truex’s night would come to an end shortly after, with crew chief James Small telling Truex to shut his engine off on lap 253.
“It hiccupped once down the backstretch and started missing,” Truex told NBC Sports’ Marty Snyder. “It self-destructed pretty quick.”
Green flag pit stops commenced with Larson and William Byron, with Hamlin and other leaders quickly following. Most of the field opted to put the prime tire back on their cars.
The biggest pit road blow of the night on pit road came via a speeding penalty, as Bell was caught speeding for the third consecutive Richmond race. After serving his penalty, Bell fell outside the top 15.
Hamlin inherited the lead from his JGR teammate, with Logano in tow right behind him. It wouldn’t take long for Dillon to join the party, however, as the No. 3 Chevrolet would catch Logano, though a loose chassis condition prevented Dillon from passing Logano on his first attempt. A few laps later, however, Dillon would get around the No. 22, catching Hamlin with 70 laps to go.
Logano kicked off the final cycle of green flag pit stops, with Larson, McDowell, Hamlin and Chastain quickly following suit. Dillon came in with 67 laps to go, and with Hamlin undercutting Dillon, both he and Logano got around Dillon to retake the top two spots.
Cook Out 400 Results
It didn’t take long for Dillon to once more get around Logano and catch Hamlin, however, as the driver of the No. 3 followed in Hamlin’s tire tracks for much of the race’s final run.
A member of the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA), Samuel also covers NASCAR for Yardbarker, Field Level Media, and Heavy Sports. He will attend the University of Arkansas in the fall of 2025.
austin dillon is a punk!
Does NASCAR know what disqualified means ? Any other racing organization does not allow demolition derby on the Final laps. Stupid racing.
NASCAR wants this kind of drama. It draws attention to them. It will up the ratings. They will use the footage on their highlight reel.
Right! It’s been like that since 2004. Game 7 moments!
This will be my only post about the Richmond race. What a farce. What a punk-ass move by a bottom-tier, no-talent driver. I have lost any respect for Austin Dillon I might have had before the race.
Somehow taking the 22 out was only 3rd worst part of that sequence, after the hook on the 11 and using a baby as a human shield.
Punk ass always. Great white hunter of animals on his walls. Hides behind a baby.
Jeff Gluck played Dillons radio live. Richard- I don’t care what you have to do as Austin was behind Joey going into turn 3, and then after he took Joey out Grandpa yells wreck him wreck him when Hamlin was there. Afterwards Richard said on the radio you did me proud. Nascar has the transmission of the radio. So does all the media. What will Nascar do. Ha wreck him wreck him explain that away Nascar.
Nascar???? Still un-official results or official? Maybe they have till Tuesday to review.
Jeff Gluck in Twitter just now Richard to Jeff just now: someone put that wreck him wreck him on the radio. Richard says you can’t believe what you hear on the Internet. Jeff Gluck said he is giving Richard the benefit of the doubt. What doubt Richard. It wasn’t the Internet it was Austin’s team radio you idiot.
While I don’t care for Dillon…or the way he won, It was funny listening to Logano and Hamblin whining about Dillon wrecking them for a win, even though it’s never bothered either of them to wreck other drivers.
The talking heads on USA kept saying (as does this article) that Dillon was now in the Chase. I thought a driver had to be in the top 30 in points to qualify for the Chase, not just win a race? I haven’t seen the updated standings, but before Richmond Dillon was 42 points below 30th place, which should make him ineligible? Even if the win bumped him into the top 30, with 3 races to go and the way he’s run this year he could still fall out of the top 30.
Have the rules changed, am I wrong about needing to be in the top 30?
I believe I read an hour ago, either Gluck or pockrass saying it doesn’t matter where you are in the standings anymore. Just telling you what I read. I thought like you.
Interestingly I found this on Jayski’s Silly Season Site under 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. About two thirds of the way down under “Playoff Eligibility”, the first line says “The top 15 drivers with the most wins…..will earn a spot in the playoffs – provided they have finished in the top 30 in points….” (italics added). If the requirements for eligibility have changed, I guess I’m not the only one who wasn’t aware of it.
https://www.jayski.com/nascar-cup-series/2024-nascar-cup-series-playoffs/
What makes you think NA$CAR would tell anyone when they modify their “rules”?
The requirement was eliminated last year. Before last year’s Coke Zero Sugar 400, there were reports that Chase Briscoe and other low in the standings could make the playoffs with a win even tough they could not accumulate enough points to make the top 30. I was puzzled, but I found a Reddit thread with a link to a Bob Pockrass tweet from January 2023 that top 30 requirement for Cup playoffs and top 20 for Xfinity and Trucks had been eliminated. https://x.com/bobpockrass/status/1620498265690210304 I guess Jayski never updated its eligibility section.
If NASCAR doesn’t issue a disqualification for Dillon everyone will drive like that and someone will get hurt or worse.
Been a NASCAR fan since 1962, and sporadically involved as well.
I can 100% say that, although Dillon’s bump was unnecessarily harder than usual, it’s been done time and time again.
I mean — given NASCAR’s ‘acceptance’ of dumping leaders in order to win — what’s with all the “shock” and “dismay”?? Especially the embarrassing whiny and insane post-race comments by two of the guiltiest parties of all-time (Logano & Hamlin).
Matter of fact, Hamlin & Logano have both dumped their opponents in the lead at times in which gave both their Championship runs in the past. One case-in-point would be Logano at Martinsville dumping the leader at Martinsville; in essence, giving Little Joey his championship.
This season Logano dumped a few “colleagues” to win — and they never retaliated. So Joey has had a free ride in that department… again.
Just because a person like Trump can BS his way out of issues does not necessarily carry-over to professional racing. Hamlin & Logano can rant, whine, and almost tear-up over getting dumped… but let’s remember there are videos of their exact same tactics. And not only once.

Ironically — these 3 clowns (Logano, Hamlin, and Dillon) are 3 of my 4 least fovorite drivers (and personalities). Far as I’m concerned, they could all 3 have crashed and I’d be a happy man!!
FYI: I forgot to mention the Hamlin problem.
Video plainly, clearly and obviously shows the #11 barreling far too deep into the turn thinking he could pass the #3 for free as Dillon tries to recover — then wiggled, lost his grip, and rode up into the #3.
All one need do is watch the replay, look at the painted lines on the track and see which car hits the other. Hamlin skipped up a couple of feet into the #3.
You can’t argue the video in this one!
BTW: It’s embarassing to listen to what is supposed to be “knowledgeable minds” called announcers (Jeff Burton not included) rant and rave like this never happens in NASCAR. I assume the heat got to their craniums??
Elton Sawyer has a job, why doesn’t he do it ? Needs an vision exam if it takes till Tuesday to issue a disqualification. Or is that the Time it takes to see what the NASCAR brass wants to do ?
And just think, if it wasn’t for Ricky Stenhouse doing his usual crap, none of us would be even having this conversation
Im not a fan of Dillon but this isn’t the first time in history this has happened. For Hamlin to whine when he has wrecked others too was hypocritica