Austin Dillon Get’s Redemption at Richmond Raceway, Shakes Up Playoff Picture Heading into Daytona

Column By: Stephen Durham / RPW – RICHMOND, V.A – Sweet, sweet redemption for Austin Dillon. Dillon gets the win at Richmond Raceway and shakes up the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, as the series heads to Daytona next weekend to wrap up the regular season.

A year ago, it was a controversial win for Austin Dillon, moving Joey Logano and hooking Denny Hamlin in the final few hundred feet to the checker flag. It would count as a win, but NASCAR would penalize Dillon for the aggressive acts that got him to that position, by disallowing him from being locked into the playoffs.

This year, a much different story. Dillon dominating the last 1/4 of the race or so, especially in the final stage, as he’d save enough tire, and the final stage would go green to checker to finish the race in a 160 lap final stage.

Highlights of the Race:

• Early on, it was Ryan Preece out front, after he grabbed his 2nd career, he’d show signs of consistency up front in the first two stages, but would fade away in the end.
• 23XI Team showed great speed and was up early and through much of the first 3/4 of the race, but then trouble would develop for Reddick and Wallace.
• For Reddick, contact from Tyler Gibbs, who got hit by Daniel Suarez, would lead to Reddick spinning on lap 182, suffered nose damage from the incident. He led 41 laps, and finished 34th.
• For Bubba Wallace, he led 123 laps, but trouble developed under green flag pit stops on lap 291, losing a left-front wheel on pit-road, stopping in Chase Briscoes pit to get the tire back on, and help Wallace get back out. Wallace would fall 2 laps down, and finish 28th.
• Another turning point was a multi-car wreck on lap 198, collecting drivers such as Denny Hamlin, Chase Briscoe, Kyle Busch, and Chase Elliott took the brunt of it, after he and Busch came together just beyond where the main wreck developed.
• Denny Hamlin had multiple issues on pit-road that likely hindered him from dominating tonight, as he showed great long-run speed in the first stage of the race.
• William Byron clinched the regular season championship.

NASCAR MEDIA RECAP:

Austin Dillon rose to the occasion.

Needing a win to make the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, Dillon led 107 laps to win Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Richmond Raceway for the second year in a row.

Dillon’s 2024 Richmond victory was shrouded in controversy as the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing driver contacted both Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin in the final laps, leading NASCAR officials to ultimately rescind Dillon’s playoff eligibility.

This year, Dillon left no doubt, benefiting from a 160-lap run to the finish and navigating lapped traffic to hold off bubble driver Alex Bowman for his sixth career victory, shaking up the playoff picture before next week’s regular-season finale.

Bowman came home second while the Team Penske trio of Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano and Austin Cindric completed the top five. Kyle Larson, Daniel Suárez, Josh Berry, Brad Keselowski and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top 10.

23XI Racing driver Bubba Wallace led the most laps, turning 123 circuits out in front but lost a left-front wheel on pit road under green at Lap 291. The Brickyard 400 winner quickly caught the issue, wisely pulling into Chase Briscoe’s pit stall as the No. 19 crew picked up the tire, jacked the Toyota up, and re-secured the wheel. He finished 28th, two laps down.

A string of Stage 2 cautions involved a group of contenders Saturday night. At Lap 182, moments after pitting under green, Tyler Reddick spun in Turn 4 after contact from Daniel Suárez moved Ty Gibbs into him. Reddick, who won Stage 1 and led 41 laps, suffered front-end damage but continued on, finishing 34th.

At Lap 198, Kyle Busch made contact with Chase Briscoe entering Turn 3, causing a wreck that involved 11 cars as Briscoe spun in front of the field. Chase Elliott, who entered Saturday’s race second in points, received the brunt of it, getting turned by Busch after nearly clearing the wreck. The DNF marked his first of the season.

The Cup Series returns Saturday, Aug. 23, for the regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Peacock).