Austin Dillon spun twice in Sunday’s Highpoint.com 400 at Pocono Raceway that was won by Denny Hamlin, but it was the second incident on lap 106 of the 160-lap race that left the furious Dillon throwing his helmet at Tyler Reddick’s Toyota as the field circled the 2.5-mile track under caution.
“I thought I was doing the right thing just going into the middle lane of the track,” Dillon, who finished 34th, said after walking from the infield care center. “I wasn’t on the bottom lane. I was going to hold the middle. He drove up into me from the bottom lane.
“I’m pissed about it because from my perspective I couldn’t see him. I know I was three wide, but my left front was in front of him. So, I didn’t come down egregiously. He drove into the corner deep enough to try and get me back. That was not possible with how I drove in the corner, and he wiped me out at the fastest part of the track.”
After Reddick’s second-place finish, the 23XI Racing driver viewed the incident as a racing accident.
“We were three wide, trying to make it into the corner,” Reddick said. “I had one approach, and he had another and unfortunately, we made contact. We hadn’t had any moments today or anything really to put us in a spot where we would have intentionally run into each other.
“I knew we didn’t have a lot of room, but I definitely wasn’t trying to squeeze him or run him up the race track or anything like that. By the time I realized he was coming down the race track, I tried to get to the brake, but it was too late, and contact was made.”
Reddick said he “kinda knew” the helmet was coming so he was ready for it.
“We’ll figure it out,” Reddick says.
