Austin Dillon Finds Redemption at Richmond, Wins His Way into the Playoffs Without Crashing Others

Yahoo

a day ago

Last year, Austin Dillon wrecked Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin for the win at Richmond Raceway, hoping to secure his spot in the playoffs with a win. Dillon was in a must-win position, too far below the cut line with two races remaining.
In the end, NASCAR let Dillon keep the win but took away his playoff berth. This year, outside the points again with two races remaining, Dillon returned to Richmond hoping to right last year's mistake. Dillon did so in dominant fashion as he was the clear fastest driver in the final stage of the 400-lap race.
Dillon was the first driver to make their final pit stop on the main strategy, going to pit with 58 laps remaining after a multi-lap battle with Ryan Blaney for the lead. Dillon went to the pits as soon as Blaney secured his pass. Blaney asked a lap later if he could follow, and the No. 12 team had him stay out for three laps to build a tire gap between the two.
Blaney pitted with 55 laps to go and came out 11 seconds behind Dillon, as the rest of the leaders also cycled through the pits, the duo returned to 1-2.
Blaney was as close as 3.7 seconds with 35 laps remaining, but his tires were falling off majorly over the final run, and Dillon was able to pull away on older tires.
"All of a sudden, I didn't have a right rear," Blaney said after the race, where he fell back to third. "I thought I was really trying to be disciplined and save a tire."
Blaney's third-place finish is his first top-five at Richmond Raceway.
Alex Bowman, who, with Dillon's win, falls to the final spot above the cutline, was running third behind Blaney as the Penske driver's tires started to fall out. Bowman, with fresher tires, made the pass for second and started to eat into Dillon's lead.
Ultimately, traffic and lack of remaining laps stopped Bowman from making a run up to Dillon to challenge for a win.
Bowman radioed in the closing laps that Dillon's teammate was blocking for him.
"I complained about it on the radio, but that's just what we do," Dillon said. "Vented a little bit, but we had a really good Ally No. 48 during that last run."
Bowman now enters Daytona, the final race before the playoffs, in the most stressful situation, with a Superspeedway being the easiest place for a new winner to appear this late in the season, just as Harrison Burton secured his spot in the playoffs last year.
Blaney was followed by his teammates Joey Logano, who ran up to fourth after starting in 38th, and Austin Cindric in fifth. Kyle Larson found his way to a top ten finish after problems throughout qualifying and the race, finishing sixth ahead of Daniel Suarez, who tied his second-best finish of the season with seventh at Richmond.
Josh Berry, Brad Keselowski, and Denny Hamlin completed the top ten. Suarez, Keselowski, and Hamlin were all involved in the lap-199 crash that ended the night for Chase Elliott and Justin Haley.
The stages were swept by 23XI Racing drivers Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace, but both of them found trouble before the end of the night. First, Reddick was spun after being wrapped up in contact between ty Gibbs and Daniel Suarez. A stage later, Wallace went to pit from second in the sequence when his car was released too soon, and his left front wheel was not fully secure, leading to the No. 19 team of Chase Briscoe to finish the pit stop for him.
Reddick ultimately finished 15th, putting his playoff berth on the line, if Bowman can make up the needed points at Daytona, and we see a new winner next Saturday.
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