CONCORD, N.C. — What had been a great day in the Queen City for both Austin Dillon and Chase Elliott turned south in a flash in a multi-car wreck in a late-race restart.
The driver of the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet was running second when the Bank of America 500 restarted with 76 laps to go. Martin Truex Jr. got into his rear to shove him ahead of race leader Jimmie Johnson, but got him loose and sent him spinning through the grass.
He slammed hard into the inside retaining wall just past the exit of pit road.
“I am fine, it just sucks,” Dillon said after being released from the care center. “We will have to work hard the next two weeks to get the points back.
“I felt like I got to third gear pretty clean and then the next thing – I feel contact and I am spinning through the grass. It’s part of it and we took two tires there and you know the risk when you get into it. You just hope that doesn’t happen obviously. I got to third without spinning the tires, and I felt like we got contacted.”
Elliott swerved down initially to avoid the wreck but turned back up to avoid Dillon who was coming down the track. This caused him to be hooked by Kyle Busch and turned into the outside wall. He hit driver-side first and was rammed by Ryan Blaney and Paul Menard.
“I think the No. 3 they stayed out on tires and tried to get some track position,” Elliott said. “The No. 78 ended up getting him out of shape and then after that I tried to check up. I don’t think the No. 18 saw it, got into us and got us turned the wrong way. It happens we just got to go and try to have more runs like that next week.”
Dillon and Elliott both leave Charlotte tied for ninth in points 36 points behind Johnson and three points behind Denny Hamlin for the eighth-place Round of 8 cut off.
