The chaos of the Cookout 400 ensured Austin Dillon’s spot in the playoffs. Everybody saw how Dillon put his foot down and charged straight into the race-leading Joey Logano’s car, completely wrecking him. But if that was not enough, Dillon decided to take out Denny Hamlin’s car too. Although this wasn’t the type of win Richard Childress Racing wanted, they will definitely take it.

With one car in the playoffs, RCR is back in contention for the championship, but it won’t be an easy ride from here on forth. Austin Dillon is far behind any playoff driver in terms of points, and that will become evident once the showdown begins. While RCR celebrates their wreckless triumph, Denny Hamlin came forward to discuss the whole incident on his podcast, Actions Detrimental. It was a split-second decision for the JGR driver, and here is everything that was going through his mind on the last turn.

Denny Hamlin breaks down the Richmond chaos

Towards the end of the race, almost everyone knew that there was a chance we would see a new race winner. Austin Dillon was driving quite well through the stages, despite having questionable restarts. In the end, he caught up with the final stage race leader and decided to take him out of his way. According to analysts, the No. 3 Chevy was charging into Logano with the intention of rear-ending him, and that’s exactly what happened.

While Denny Hamlin did not dish out his opinion in the post-race interview, he came clean on his podcast. Hamlin stated, “I’ll be honest with you. I thought when I came off pit road third instead of second… because I came in second, and at that point, I’m thinking, ‘Oh man, maybe I get to the lead again like I did in the spring,’ right?”

Unfortunately, the situation did not unfold as Hamlin expected. The contact with Austin Dillon put Hamlin into the wall too, but the JGR driver managed to finish P3. The No. 11 driver explained his thought process after looking at the race results as he explained, “But when I came off third, I was not that disappointed because I felt as though I knew Austin was going to be very desperate.”

In a race where it all comes down to how your restart goes, Hamlin studied the board and decided to steer clear of Austin Dillon. Hamlin went into details, saying, “If I got a good restart, I thought he was just going to wash up into me because… forgive me if I have PTSD about not finishing where I should be finishing week in and week out.”

The No. 11 driver had many things run through his mind in the split second that he had to make his decision after Logano was hit.

What thoughts were running through Denny Hamlin’s mind?

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It’s not easy to see a car intentionally wreck another in front of your eyes. The first thought that comes to mind is, “Am I next?” Unfortunately, in Denny Hamlin’s case, he was. When Hamlin tried to overtake Dillon in the confusion, he ended up coming in harm’s way and found himself in the outer wall. Moments before that happened, thoughts like, “How am I going to get wiped out here and not finish where I deserve to finish on this day?” and “I’m going to get wiped out. This is just going to be bad,” came up.

This is not a good sign, as there are too many factors to consider while racing 200 miles per hour. Hamlin explained, “I knew that the three were going to be desperate. I didn’t know how desperate until the final corner.” To be fair, this was the only way Austin Dillon would win the race after entering the final lap. The RCR driver saw that he had nothing to lose and everything to gain, so he went for it, and surprisingly, it worked for him.

After the dust settled, Hamlin explained that he was happy with his P3 finish and stated, “I was very aware but certainly didn’t think it would go like it did for the final 200 yards.” With that said, do you think that Austin Dillon should get into the playoffs with this performance? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.