“You don’t hate the player, you hate the game”: When Austin Dillon showed zero remorse for wrecking Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin

Austin Dillon logged his fifth NASCAR Cup Series win last year at Richmond Raceway. But to many, it wasn’t a clean victory as the Richard Childress Racing driver wrecked two of his fellow drivers, seconds before crossing the finish line.

The two drivers were Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin and three-time series champion Joey Logano. Under normal circumstances, a win would have given Dillon an automatic spot in the playoffs. However, NASCAR revoked his playoff spot while allowing him to keep his win.

Dillon wasn’t apologetic at all. In a post-race interview days later, he said, via APNews:

“You don’t hate the player. You hate the game.”

An entire year has passed since then. Austin Dillon is now in his 12th year driving full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series. 24 races into the 2025 season, the North Carolina native sits 28th in the driver standings with four top-10s and 406 points to his name.

Dillon has made the playoffs five times, consistently from 2016 to 2018, and again in 2020 and 2022. But given where he stands on points this year, he has to get a win to get in.

The former Truck Series champion has just two races ahead of him to do that.

“I’ve seen Denny and Joey make moves”- Austin Dillon claps back at criticism over controversial victory at Richmond

Austin Dillon’s move against Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano was criticized by several NASCAR pundits and analysts. However, Dillon defended his move last year, saying that it’s not new for NASCAR drivers to wreck others to win.

“I’ve seen Denny and Joey make moves that have been running people off the track to win,” Austin Dillon said in an interview, via The Spun. “This was the first opportunity in two years for me to be able to get a win. I drove in there and kept all four tires turning across the start-finish line.”

Well, NASCAR is a contact sport, and rubbing is indeed an integral part of racing. However, there is a thin line between hard racing and blatantly wrecking someone.

“To me, I’ve seen a lot of stuff over the years in NASCAR, where people move people, and it’s just part of our sport,” he added.

Denny Hamlin reacted to Dillon’s move, saying that even though the former had been reckless on track himself, he had never done anything like that to win. Joey Logano, however, pulled no punches, slamming Dillon for his antics.

“I beat him fair and square on the restart, and he just pulls a chickens**t move,” Logano said. “He's a piece of cr*p. The kid, he sucks. He's sucked his whole career.”

Fast forward to 2025, and the drivers are now ahead of the Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway. Scheduled for Saturday, August 16, the 400-lap race will be televised on USA (7:30 pm ET). Fans can listen to exclusive radio updates on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio as well.