Austin Dillon Says A Conversation With Kid Rock Helped Him Deal With Backlash Over Richmond Win

Aaron Ryan·
CULTURESPORTS
·
Austin Dillon
NBC

Turning to the great philosopher Bob Ritchie for some words of wisdom.

Austin Dillon has no doubt heard his fair share of criticism this week after the wild finish at Richmond last week.

As NASCAR returned from a two-week break, Dillon managed to score a controversial win and lock himself into the Cup Series playoffs – for a couple of days.

Dillon, who came into the race sitting at 32nd in the points and needing a win to make the playoffs, was headed towards a major upset – until Ryan Preece and Ricky Stenhouse brought out the yellow flag and set up an overtime finish.

The field came down pit road, and Dillon managed to maintain the lead while Joey Logano came out 2nd and Denny Hamlin in 3rd.

On the final restart, Logano managed to get by the #3 car and looked to be on his way to keeping Richard Childress Racing out of victory lane.

But as they went into turn 3 on the final lap, Dillon decided to dive bomb Logano and put the bumper to him, sending the #22 spinning and opening the door for a drag race between Hamlin and Dillon for the victory.

Or so it seemed…

Dillon wasn’t going to be denied from winning his first race since August 2022, and hooked Hamlin in the right rear to also send the #11 car into the outside wall.

The end result was Dillon took the iconic #3 to victory lane – and pissed off Logano and Hamlin.

In his postrace interviews, the driver of the #22 Team Penske car had some harsh words for Dillon:

“It’s chickenshit, there’s no doubt about it. He’s four car lengths back, not even close, then he wrecks the 11 to go along with it. And then he’s going to go up there and thank God and praise everything with his baby. It’s a bunch of BS.

It’s not even freakin’ close. Dude, I get it, bump and run, I get it. I didn’t back up the corner at all. He came in there and just drove through me. It’s ridiculous that that’s the way we race.

I get bump and runs. I do that. I would expect it. But from 4 car lengths back he was never going to make the corner. And then he wrecks the other car, he wrecks the 11 to go with it. What a piece of crap.”

He wasn’t done yet though:

“He’s a piece of crap. He sucks. He’s sucked his whole career, and now he’s going to be in the playoffs.”

And while Hamlin wasn’t quite as heated, he obviously felt the same way:

But it wasn’t just the drivers involved in the wild finish who were disgusted by how it all went down. Drivers like Bubba Wallace, Ross Chastain and Tyler Reddick all expressed their displeasure with Dillon’s move and what it means for the sport going forward.

Obviously drivers feel that it sets a bad precedent if NASCAR allows drivers to just right rear somebody into the wall for a win – not to mention the safety concerns if that happens at a bigger track.

With the exception of Richard Childress and his RCR employees, as well as the few Austin Dillon fans out there, everybody seemed to be in agreement that Dillon went too far, and expected NASCAR to issue some sort of penalty for his actions.

And they came down HARD.

NASCAR announced earlier this week that they revoked the automatic playoff berth that Dillon would have earned from the win, meaning that while he got to keep the win, it will not count towards eligibility for the playoffs. (Generally, a driver who wins a race is automatically in the playoffs).

The powers that be found that Dillon “violated its playoff eligibility rule” and therefore the win won’t count – though if he manages to win another race, he could still get in.

In addition, Dillon was docked 25 points, and his spotter Brandon Benesch has been suspended for 3 races after audio emerged of the spotter screaming for Dillon to “wreck him” as he approached Hamlin.

Dillon has been harshly criticized, on social media and from those in NASCAR alike. So there’s no doubt that it’s been a tough week for the 34-year old Cup Series veteran.

But apparently, a conversation with Kid Rock helped him put things into perspective.

Speaking with NBC Sports, Dillon recalled seeing his friend at a PBR event on Friday and asking him how things were going. And it was Kid Rock’s response that the driver says helped him deal with the criticism:

“Good. I got half the country that hates me and half the country that loves me. It’s going great.”

According to Dillon, hearing that from the controversial rocker helped him out:

“I can kind of relate to that.”

Now, I’m not one to kick a guy when he’s down, but…only half the country hates him? Pretty sure it seemed like nearly universal agreement that Dillon was in the wrong last week. Hell, I think the only people he had on his side work for RCR. So I’m not sure that it’s just “half” of NASCAR fans that hate Dillon right now. But I get what he’s saying.

As far as regrets about what he did, Dillon said it was a result of the high stakes that were involved:

“This is a game. In the end, you don’t hate the player, you hate the game.”

Yeah, but if I was sitting at the blackjack table and the guy next to me punched me in the face and took all my chips, I’d probably hate the player too.

Oh, and Dillon still thinks he deserves to be in the playoffs.

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