In an overtime finish, Dillon dropped to second behind Team Penske’s Joey Logano out of turn two on the restart.

On the final lap, heading into turn three, the Richard Childress Racing driver drove into the back of the #22 and sent it spinning.

That opened the door for Hamlin to go through into the lead, but Dillon in the #3 hooked the #11 in the right rear quarter-panel and sent the Toyota Camry into the outside wall.

The win ended a 68-race drought for Dillon whose last triumph was at Daytona in 2022.

“It’s obviously foul but it’s fair in NASCAR,” said Hamlin post-race.

“We’re just a different league where there are no penalties for rough driving. It opens up the opportunity for Austin to be able to just do whatever he wants.

“The problem I had is I got hooked in the right rear, again. I’m just minding my own business and he turned left and hooked me in the rear and blew my damn shoulder out.

“The record book won’t care, right, about what happened. He’s going to be credited with the win but obviously he’s just not going to go far because you’ve got to pay your dues back on stuff like that.

“But it’s worth it because you jump 20 positions in points. So I understand all that, and there’s no ill-will there. I get it. I just hate I was part of it.

“It would have been fun if I was not one of the two guys who got taken out on the last corner. I understand it. Doesn’t mean I have to agree with it. We’ll talk about it tomorrow.”

The move has drawn mixed reactions. Tyler Reddick told SiriusXM that the next generation of racers will see Dillon’s actions as acceptable as long as NASCAR does not penalise it.

Even iRacing, the consumer-based simulator service, took to X (formerly Twitter) with a tongue-in-cheek post telling users not to recreate the move.

Hamlin worries that the NASCAR feeder categories could suffer as a result of Dillon’s last lap antics.

“Absolutely a line was crossed but it’s an invisible line. It’s not defined,” Hamlin explained.

“They have rules and provisions for stuff like this but they never take action for it

“What happens is you see young guys coming up in the short track ranks. They see that and think that’s fine.

“That’s why we see some of the lower series turn out the way they do in these green-white-chequer situations because some of the best they see on Sunday do stuff like that.

“Who am I to throw stones in a glass house, but man, I certainly never won one that way.

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