“Wreck him!” yelled Dillon’s spotter, to Denny Hamlin‘s misery. Austin Dillon had a blast at Richmond, but the consequences were far deeper than he imagined. Besides Joey Logano making a spectacle by spinning tires in front of his crew, NASCAR slapped charges. Dillon lost his playoff eligibility and slipped in points back from 26th to 31st. Another more invisible impact was on his rival’s health condition.

Last year, Hamlin underwent a crucial surgery that determined his pre-season appearances. Although the healing process is up to speed, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver admitted how the Richmond chaos had an impact on his shoulder and possibly his championship hopes as well.

Richmond could hurt Denny Hamlin in multiple ways

In November last year, Denny Hamlin underwent arthroscopic surgery on his right shoulder. It was the culmination of a bone spur that he suffered a few years ago, and the recovery was slower than expected. Coming right off the 2023 season, the physical mishap considerably hit his chances of winning the championship. This year, he is healing fast – although the Cook Out 400 chaos may have hurt his lifelong dream yet again.

In a pre-race presser for the Michigan race, Denny Hamlin opened up about the impact. Although Austin Dillon and his spotter were behind it, he refrained from blaming them. “Yeah…my whole right side you know, just took the hit. When you look at kind of how these Next Gen cars take crashes, really the flat side impact is kind of the worst thing that you can have, ’cause there is no crush there…Actually would have been better to nose it head-on or back it in, because we have the softer bumpers and whatnot now.”

On the final lap of the 400-lap race, Austin Dillon went rogue. He chased down Joey Logano and spun him out in a smoky mess, and then right-hooked Denny Hamlin who slammed against the wall. “Blew my damn shoulder,” Hamlin fumed after the race. The uncalled-for actions on the Richard Childress Racing driver’s part awarded him a playoff miss and a huge points reduction.

Denny Hamlin expressed how his own playoff chances could also have been put at stake. “Even though it’s been 8-9 months or so since surgery, the rotator cuffs take forever…I’m not young as I used to be so I don’t recover quite as quick as I used to. Last year, I just kept making the injury worse and worse and worse by continuing to race. This year, it’s getting better each week.” Besides the risk to his championship hopes, Hamlin’s crew chief underlined a crucial aspect of the whole fiasco.

Dillon pushed Hamlin to the biggest risk

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Remember when the Next Gen car was introduced in 2022? A slew of on-track accidents followed, and the driver on top of that list was Kurt Busch. He suffered an impact of 30G that left him with a crippling concussion, ultimately driving him to retirement. That was the highest impact in the Gen 7 era – until last weekend! When Austin Dillon right-hooked Denny Hamlin, the No. 11 Toyota registered an impact of 32G, and their crew chief bashed NASCAR for its lackluster response.

Despite the data being available to the authorities, Chris Gabehart criticized the sanctioning body for delaying the judgment. “Do you wanna know what the highest recorded g spike in the history of Gen-7 was for JGR? It was Richmond and the 11 car. Sunday night, 32g spike in the wall off Turn 4 coming to the checker flag. Highest ever recorded. I might add higher than the one that unfortunately put Kurt Busch into retirement, ultimately at Pocono higher than that. So some flagrant fouls are flagrant. They’re dangerous. That’s why you allow the referees to throw the flag. And we’ve just gotta get to a point where we, where we’re willing to throw the flag on Sunday night. That’s the only thing I think we got wrong about this in my opinion.”

Clearly, Austin Dillon’s wreck-fest did not delight Gabehart in the slightest. As the playoffs loom on the horizon, Denny Hamlin needs to be in his best form to finally win the  Cup Series championship.