The shockwaves from last weekend have settled down. Austin Dillon emerged as the unlikely winner of the Richmond race in a questionable fashion. He grew desperate on the last lap, shoving two stellar Cup Series drivers out of the way to grab the checkered flag. Despite the buzz and hullabaloo caused by that thrilling win, NASCAR toned it all down as they stripped Dillon’s playoff eligibility. Yet Joey Logano is still seething.

Being one of Dillon’s on-track victims, Logano had hollered some colorful things about him. Even after the dust has settled, the Team Penske driver staunchly defends his stance. Even Logano’s own dark past is no deterrent to his hardliner approach to Dillon.

Joey Logano steers clear of any comparison

The final lap of the Cook Out 400 was a spectacle indeed. Austin Dillon had lingered around the top ten for most of the race and took the lead towards the end. He went rogue after Joey Logano overtook him after the caution – taking out both Logano and Denny Hamlin to soar to Victory Lane. But this significantly violated NASCAR’s rulebook, and soon Dillon’s win was invalidated for the playoffs. Even then, Dillon’s bump-and-run did echo his victims’ past actions, although Logano vehemently opposes that.

In the pre-race presser for Michigan, a Kickin’ the Tires journalist asked Joey Logano if Dillon’s action on Hamlin was ‘deliberate’ or not. Logano firmly stuck to his stance, adding sarcastic humor as well. “I mean it’s not that hard to drive a car and hook another car into the wall after that. There’s data that shows his hands turning to the left. If he was gonna go straight, he would have held his hands straight…That’s the craziest thing you’ve ever seen, if you turn left, the car actually turns to the left!”

Then the journalist brought out some personal stuff, citing Joey Logano’s own aggressive past. He had wrecked William Byron in the 2022 Darlington race, and also Matt Kenseth way back in 2015 at Kansas. Both were bump-and-runs delivered in the heat to secure the victory. However, Logano defended those times: “The 24 put me in the wall in Darlington…When I got back to him, I was close to him, hit him, and we both went around the corner. Same thing with the 20 – he put me in the wall in Kansas, went around the corner and we made contact.” 

Joey Logano pronounced his verdict—unlike his vengeful tactics, Dillon’s aggression was out of the blue. “I expect bump-and-runs – I’ve done bump-and-runs…’If someone hits you, hit them back!’ That’s what I teach my kids…This was never any history in the past with Austin, at least in my remembrance.” Similar to Logano’s stance, Denny Hamlin also sanctioned Dillon’s penalty, albeit with a softer touch.

Dillon has not lost Hamlin’s respect totally

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After Joey Logano, Hamlin was the second Cup driver who fell prey to Dillon’s rogue tactics. The RCR driver nudged Hamlin’s No. 11 on the right side, which left the latter bumping into the wall. However, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver maintained his wits about him after the race, unlike Logano’s passionate outburst. Denny Hamlin advocated for a penalty and soon enough saw his wish granted by NASCAR.

As the press asked him if he believed Dillon’s punishment was required, he agreed. But his soft corner for Dillon was still visible. “In the moment, you wish — well, if you just take the win, then everything fixes itself than kind of having this split decision, but as I understand it, there is some iffy language in the rule book on if can you really go back and take a win at this point. I think in the future, you just send whoever it is to the back, and it all fixes itself…Given how much time it took, it was probably the right call.”

Hamlin also added that the system is to blame more than Dillon. “I really stuck up for him quite a bit earlier in this year, when he was going through some pretty tough finishes and things like that, and talking about how I really respected his character, and I still do. He just was put in a really tough spot, where you have to make a split-second decision, and he made one that was not in the, in my opinion, best interest of the sport.” 

Evidently, Logano and Hamlin diverge in their responses. But they do agree with handing Dillon the penalty for his Richmond aggression.