Kyle Petty doesn't have problem with controversial NASCAR finish incident between Austin Dillon, Denny Hamlin

Kyle Petty initially had a big problem with Austin Dillon right rear hooking Denny Hamlin on the final lap of Sunday’s Cook Out 400 at Richmond to take the checkered flag.

That is, until he saw a replay and took some additional looks at the incident. Upon review, Petty felt it was a case of two drivers fighting for the same position off of Turn 4, thus causing chaos to ensue.

“I thought Austin Dillon ran one of the best races that I have ever seen him drive until those last few laps,” Petty said Monday. “That’s a totally different story and a totally different race. But he had a great car. Let’s go to the restart. We go to the restart, and we’ve got the 3 car of Austin Dillon on the inside and the 22 car of Joey Logano on the outside. Austin Dillon gets outdrove, he doesn’t get outrun, he gets outdrove on the restart. The great race he had driven up to that point — throw it out the window. Because now you’re beat, you’ve gotta do something drastic. And we saw him do something drastic.

“He comes from four or five car lengths back going into Turn 3 on the final lap [and] he gets into Joey Logano and spins him. Don’t whine Joey Logano, we’ve seen you do it before. Denny Hamlin — he can’t say much either. They’ve done the same thing. The thing that bothered me was coming off the corner and turning the 11 into the outside wall. But as I looked at it and as I went back and replayed it, I think this is two guys fighting for the same position. Two different angles and we know from geometry when two lines intersect, we’re gonna have chaos and that’s what happened.”

Austin Dillon locks himself into postseason with controversial win at Richmond

The move, as well as the one that preceded it when Dillon dumped Logano going into Turn 3, paid off in a big way for the Richard Childress Racing driver. Dillon, who entered Sunday’s race 32nd in the points standings, will now be a part of the 16-driver postseason field.

A lot of fans compared the incident to the days of Dale Earnhardt Sr. and others doing the same thing before the turn of the century. Petty, however, isn’t having that argument.

“If you’re a new fan, you loved that finish,” Petty said. “When I say new fan, last 25 years. If you’re an old fan, you’re embarrassed of that finish because that’s not what NASCAR was built on. That’s now what NASCAR was, and I don’t care you millennials and all you people out there, this is not the platform that my dad [Richard Petty] or Dale Earnhardt Sr. and those guys raced on. They didn’t just wreck, they raced. This is all about wrecking in these last few laps.”