Austin Dillon, Richard Childress not happy with Daniel Suarez over Phoenix crash

WELCOME, N.C. — Austin Dillon and car owner Richard Childress remain displeased with Daniel Suarez for contact that sent Dillon into the wall on the last lap of Sunday’s race at Phoenix Raceway, costing Dillon a top-10 finish.

Dillon was running seventh and had Suarez and Kyle Busch behind him going into Turn 3. Busch went low to get around Suarez, who dived down the track to block. There was slight contact between the two cars. Suarez collected the car but continued to drift up the track and made contact with Dillon’s car, sending Dillon into the wall. 

Dillon finished 21st, the first car a lap down. Suarez placed ninth. Busch was seventh.

After the race, Suarez wrote on Instagram: “I’m so sorry for the 3 team, they deserved better today. Racing hard with him and the 18, I just got pushed into the last corner and into the 3.”

“I feel like I got the short end of it, for sure,” Dillon told NBC Sports on Tuesday. “I saw his Instagram, and he called (Monday) and texted me. I didn’t respond. 

“I wish he would have just messaged me and said, ‘Hey, I screwed up.’ Instead he said he got pushed into it, or loose brakes, and I just hear excuses from him a lot.”

“I didn’t get the finish I wanted. I hate that. I didn’t think that the move he made, it wasn’t a smart move. We could have all went in there three-wide together and made it through the corner and whatever would have come out. We could have all come out of there OK. Instead, destroyed a race car we don’t have back here at the shop.”

Dillon questioned Suarez blocking Busch.

“You block a guy, you’re probably going to get sent,” Dillon said. “(Suarez) gets nudged going into the corner because he’s out of position. If he just holds his line all the way down the backstretch for