Dale Earnhardt Jr. weighs in on Austin Dillon, Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin chaotic finish at Richmond

Dale Earnhardt Jr. weighed in on the last-lap chaos between Austin Dillon, Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin at Richmond, which resulted in the No. 3 returning to Victory Lane, during the latest episode of the Dale Jr. Download.

First, Earnhardt Jr. gave his thoughts on Dillon spinning Logano exiting the final turn, and explained why he didn’t necessarily have a problem with the decision.

“The No. 22  gained the restart just right. He didn’t cheat, he didn’t do anything wrong, but he timed it just right, and he went down and didn’t allow Austin to be able to roll the corner in Turn 1 and 2, like he would have preferred,” Earnhardt Jr. started. “So, he beats him off the corner, and so Austin, at that point, is like, ‘I gotta stay close enough to be able to hit him.’ Alright, that’s it. That’s all you’re trying to do at that moment, and Austin would admit that, ‘I’m just trying to get back to him, and if I need to hit him, I’m hitting him. I’m 32nd in points, I’m going to do whatever I need to do.’

“So now, as they go down in the last turn, Austin definitely would have liked to have been closer, so that it didn’t look so desperate, but he’s absolutely desperate. He goes down in the corner and hits Joey, which I don’t really have a problem with. Even as big of a Hail Mary as that was. I mean, it was full intent, not even trying to make the corner, ‘I’m gonna do everything I can to knock this guy out of the race, up the racetrack and spinning. I don’t care. I don’t care what happens to him. I’m getting to him and hitting him. This is it. This is all I’ve got. This is my only chance.’ I don’t really have a problem with that.

“I don’t love it. I don’t, you know, in the CARS Tour, you’re gonna get disqualified for that move. NASCAR doesn’t have a rule for this. They don’t have a rule against this. Now, they have penalized people for spinning people in the past. You go back to Sonoma, I think sometime in the 90s, Ricky Rudd and Davey Allison. So, I mean, there’s a precedent from way back, where someone was penalized for turning a car to win the race. I don’t have a big problem with that, in terms of the driver code.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr: Austin Dillon’s contact with Denny Hamlin is ‘a big controversy’

While the wreck involving Logano was fine in Earnhardt Jr.’s point of view, the spinning of Hamlin coming to the line is where the situation takes a turn for Dillon, no pun intended.

“Now, what happens after that is a big controversy, in my eyes,” the NASCAR Hall of Fame Inductee said. “So he goes through the No. 22 car, and then what happens next? Does Denny drive across the No. 3 or does the No. 3 turn the No. 11? Or is it a combination of Denny taking a natural line, and the No. 3 taking a very unnatural line? And, you know, a bit of an argument there, between those two cars. I know that Austin’s looking at the start-finish-line, and I know Austin’s like, full throttle, get there as fast as I can.

“He’s an elite — you know, as much s— as people want to give him for, for being mid and average, or below average, whatever you want to do, for being in the position he’s in, he’s still a very good race car driver, in terms of the general population. He’s doing this enough every week, there’s no question he sees and feels and understands where Denny’s at, right? Your peripheral, and all of those things, are over-tuned, and all of this information is coming at you, and you’re processing it. So yes, he’s trying to get to the start-finish-line, and yes, he’s focused on that and looking forward, but he definitely sees and feels a car right here, to his left. I’m just saying like, you know that car’s there.

“Now, they come together. There’s some data. So, the SMT is public. The SMT is out on the internet. Usually, we don’t get this SMT put out publicly, but it is in this case, and you can see when the cars come together, either moments before or during the contact at No. 11, Austin steers left. Now, a lot of people are going to look at that and go, ‘Well, there it is. There’s the — he’s red handed, right?’ … So, there’s that debate. The data is there, the SMT is there, but it still doesn’t convince me.”

‘The only thing that is really going to convince me is somebody admitting that they did it.’

Evidently, nothing short of Dillon admitting he turned Hamlin is going to convince Earnhardt Jr. that he’s in the wrong, even if that might never happen after the backlash he’s received for the maneuver.

“The only thing that is really going to convince me is somebody admitting that they did it,” Earnhardt Jr. added. “I guess what I’m saying is, like, you could argue if you’re in the Dillon camp, Dillon turned left at the point of contact to keep from going into the wall with the No. 11, because when they come together, the No. 11’s going to crash, and if Austin doesn’t steer left, he’s going with him, right? So, Austin certainly turns left, right hooks the No. 11. But was it to save his own ass?

“… So, you know, that’s something I think that we’ll all debate, or that’s something that I wish we all had more information, or the truth on, is like, what, really did you want to achieve there.”

Alas, there’s going to be a ton of debate regarding who was in the wrong at Richmond for a long, long time, but Dale Earnhardt Jr. isn’t being quick to pin it all on Austin Dillon, like many have over the last couple of days.