Austin Dillon explains his thought process on last lap at Richmond before wrecking Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin

Austin Dillon knew he had to make a big move during the final lap of the Cook Cout 400 to earn a much-needed win. While speaking to Kevin Harvick on Victory Lane, Dillon explained his thought process on the last lap at Richmond before wrecking Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin.

“Unfortunately, the caution comes out with two to go. I just had to put my mind at ease and say ‘Hey look, we can do this,'” Dillon said. “Pit crew, I got to give them a huge shoutout. We haven’t put them in positions to have that opportunity very often and they clutched it when it mattered. So we’re up front, we chose the bottom and maybe that wasn’t the right call. But I was going off of previous race wins off of that and I felt like if Joey takes inside, eight tires are going to be better than four. That was my other thing, I could protect a little better from the inside.

“When we fired, he rolled and he had a big roll on me. I wanted to go early in the box, and I waited a little too long. He rolled me and beat me to the start/finish line. That put me in a bad situation. Once I knew he had gotten the lead off of two, I just needed to make a corner that would give me an opportunity to get to him. Off of Turn 2, I felt like he had a slip off of four that kept me within a decent distance. I had a decent Turn 2 on the white flag lap, and then it was like whatever it took to get him up the track loose whatever it was.

Austin Dillon dives into wreck with Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin

Dillon then gets into the move that led to him hitting Logano and Hamlin. “I went into Turn 3, I was up a gear, and when I rolled to [Logano], I think I caught him right in the edge of the right rear,” Dillion explained. “He went up the track, I downshifted a fourth.

“At that point, I’m looking at the start/finish line with less momentum. Denny’s coming up the track, I didn’t see…When I’m looking at the start/finish line, I’m going at the closest angle. When he comes up, that was just a reaction getting to the line.”

Logano and Hamlin called out Dillon for wrecking them on Sunday. With the victory, Dillon clinched a spot in the playoffs. Logano and Hamlin clinched playoff spots earlier this year as each has won at least one Cup Series race.