RELATED: Dillon seventh in standings post-race | Full race results
MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- The heated No. 3 radio chatter and on-track bumping-and-shoving match and between Richard Childress Racing drivers Austin Dillon and Paul Menard on Sunday afternoon at Martinsville Speedway ended with a handshake and pat on the back.
"He just said, 'Our cars are fast' -- we worked it out on the track," Dillon said on pit road following the duo's brief conversation after earning fourth, tied for his best finish in the Cup Series (2015 Pure Michigan 400). "I probably overreacted. I was racing AJ (Allmendinger), trying to race him clean and I kept bumping him and I was in the middle of a sandwich there.
"It's just part of Martinsville and short-track racing."
Indeed: Martinsville Speedway, the place where the only thing shorter than the .526-mile track are the flaring tempers. The Dillon-Menard squabble began at Lap 342 of the 500-lap event, when Menard's No. 27 hit the back of Dillon's No. 3 ride while making a pass.
"See what happens when you try and help people?" a fired-up Dillon said on his in-car radio. "I tried to let the 27 in."
The duo continued to battle on-track, exchanging paint here and there. But they ultimately settled it out on the track, Dillon said, letting one another pass at two different points. They also ended the day on a positive note with their pit road exchange.
For the No. 3 team, it was just another pothole on the bumpy road of Martinsville that eventually led them to a hard-earned, top-five result at "The Paperclip." In addition to the car falling off a jack during Sunday's race, the team struggled in Friday's qualifying session, posting a 29th-place qualifying run to go with recording the 28th-fastest speed in opening practice.
"I was really pretty much distraught, qualifying 29th -- we hadn't been that bad all year," Dillon said. "We put a lot of focus into qualifying here and talked about where I'd messed up previous races and I just kind of backed it up and messed it up again."
"Friday was a complete disaster. It was a very bad day for us and it brought out a lot of our colors on Friday," crew chief Slugger Labbe said in the garage following the race, mirroring Dillon's feelings. "We had a meeting -- myself and Austin -- Friday night, had a long discussion on the phone. We all decided Friday night that, hey, we've got to get our (stuff) together.
"And Austin, he came in here Saturday morning and he had the right mindset. Saturday was a completely different day and we made very little changes Saturday night after 'Happy Hour' coming into the race and just let him do his thing. He changed his driving technique and it really helped the performance of the race car and our team."
Martinsville has never been Dillon's strongest track. Before Sunday's thriller, he had an average Cup finish of 21.5 here. The fourth-place finish -- which Dillon credited to Labbe's decision to remain on-track during the race's final cycle of pit stops -- was also a testament to the immense growth of the No. 3 team this season.
As the leader of the No. 3 team, Dillon has made strides as a driver, under the guidance of Labbe, whose experience lends a hand to the young Dillon. The two seem to balance one another out, as Dillon's fiery personality meshes well with Labbe's collected nature.
"Today's a good example of how (Dillon) is willing to change his driving style and look at our tools and use all the people that he has around him," Labbe explained. "RCR has a tremendous amount of talent and he's using resources like we are to get better.
"I'm the old guy, you know, being 48. But it's fun to teach these kids and Austin with my experience to help everyone get better. So, it's a good team and a good group of guys and Austin's doing a good job working with the engineers, myself and his driver coach -- he's doing all the right stuff right now."
As for the radio meltdowns? Labbe says that's a work in progress.
"Well, that's been a problem of his, you know?" Labbe said. "When adversity hits, he loses his mind. The last couple weeks we've done a really good job trying to get his mind back right and focus on his job of driving a Sprint Cup car. We've had some good meetings in the past few weeks about adversity and how to handle it.
"But (today) he got his composure back and gathered himself back up and by him doing that, it gave us the opportunity to make a pit decision like we did today and get a good top-five finish out of it."
MORE: At-track photos from Sunday's event