"He revved the engine right in front of my kid" - Austin Dillon furious at Joey Logano's Richmond stunt
Austin Dillon slammed Joey Logano after the Team Penske driver tried out a stunt on the pit road following the conclusion of the Cook Out 400 race at Richmond Raceway. The RCR driver pointed out how Logano risked the safety of the former's kid with his aggressive behavior in front of the RCR garage.
Logano tried out a mini-burnout at the pit road right after Sunday's race was concluded. He was seemingly unhappy with how things went for him in the last lap of the race.
During the last lap of the NASCAR overtime, Dillon cut the lane, right-hooked Logano, and sent him spinning. In doing so, the former cleared his way to victory and jeopardized the latter's race entirely. As the Penske driver lost the race win at the very last moment, he decided to show his frustration in front of the RCR garage.
"The only thing that did piss me off about Joey was when he came through there, my wife and kid were headed across to get to cross, and he revved the engine up right in front of my kid and Johnny Morris and those people,” Austin Dillon said (via on3.com). “I get it. You got to be mad and upset but do it like in an interview or talk to me about it. You got to be careful on pit road with that type of stuff.”
While Logano received a fair share of criticism for his actions, Dillon's tactics attracted ample criticism from fans and experts alike. Even current and former drivers called out the #3 driver for his controversial move.
Notably, Logano wasn't the only one who fell prey to Austin Dillon's aggressive tactics. Denny Hamlin, who had a bright chance to win the Richmond race, also made contact with the #3 car and hit the wall at high speed.
NASCAR noted Joey Logano's post-race activity before Austin Dillon's comment
Joey Logano's post-race aggression on the pit road did not go unnoticed. Elton Sawyer, NASCAR's Vice President of Competitions, revealed that NASCAR noticed the incident and will take the necessary action with time.
"We don't want to make a split-second decision and get it wrong," Sawyer said in the post race interview. "So we want to make sure we go back and we'll look at everything that happened on the last lap and post-race and see if any penalties need to be issued."
Joey Logano's action triggered a safety concern for NASCAR as the Team Penske driver was agonizingly close to the Richard Childress Racing garage. It will be interesting to see if NASCAR finds Logano guilty and penalizes him for his actions.