Austin Dillon makes NASCAR Cup playoffs with redemptive victory at Richmond
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Austin Dillon was hurting mentally and physically when he arrived at Richmond Raceway. He found the cure for what ailed him in victory lane Saturday night.
Racing with a broken rib and some wounded pride, Dillon locked into the Cup Series playoffs with a clean run to his second consecutive victory on the 0.75-mile oval.
It was a redemptive triumph for the Richard Childress Racing driver, whose championship eligibility was revoked by NASCAR last year after he wrecked Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin on the final lap to win at Richmond.
After missing the playoffs and enduring criticism from Logano, Hamlin and others who accused him of racing dirty, he went through a 37-race winless stretch before breaking through at Richmond with his first top five of the season.
“Man, that feels good,” said Dillon, whose previous best finish had been a seventh at Texas Motor Speedway in May. “I really wanted that one. Last year hurt really bad just going through the whole process of it, but this one feels so sweet. Man, I love Richmond.”
He revealed after his sixth career victory that he also had raced with the rib injury the past three weeks since falling off a ladder before the Aug. 3 race at Iowa Speedway.
“I was thrown down a lot this week and didn’t feel great,” he said.
He shrugged off the pain to outduel Ryan Blaney over the final 100 laps, seizing control with a shrewd strategy call to pit his No. 3 Chevrolet four laps earlier than the Team Penske driver’s No. 12 Ford.
Dillon, who led 107 of 400 laps, won by 2.471 seconds over Alex Bowman. Blaney faded to third, followed by Joey Logano and Austin Cindric.
Dillon became the 14th race winner to lock into the 16-driver field for the Cup playoffs, which are contested over the final 10 races of the season.
The regular season will conclude next Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway, where the final two playoff drivers will be confirmed — and at least one will qualify through the points standings.
Tyler Reddick and Bowman are in the final two provisional spots on points, but either could be eliminated if another new winner emerges at Daytona (which has happened twice in the last three years).
“Really stressful on a lot of fronts,” Bowman said. “I think with the way that race normally goes, it’s about a must-win at that point because I think you’re most likely going to have a new winner. Just need to go execute and try to win the race. That’s all we can really do.”
Streak over
After a consistent start to his season, Chase Elliott is in a slump heading into the playoffs. The 2020 Cup champion finished last at Richmond and failed to finish for the first time since last October at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (27 races ago).
Elliott nearly had cleared the pileup on the 198th lap when he was tagged in the right rear by Kyle Busch.
“I think Kyle just didn’t know that we were trying to squeeze by the wreck on the bottom,” Elliott said. “We had a good start to the night, and it just slowly unraveled until it finally fell apart. Hopefully, we get on a better stretch starting next week.”
Since briefly taking the points lead after his June 28 win at Atlanta, the seven-time Most Popular Driver has finished outside the top 10 in five of seven races.
Packed house
About an hour before the green flag, Richmond Raceway announced its first sellout since 2008. During its heyday, the track had 112,000 seats that sold out twice annually. Because of softening ticket sales amid lackluster racing, Richmond was scheduled for only one Cup race this season for the first time since 1958, and its grandstand capacity has dwindled to under 50,000.
Denny Hamlin grew up about 20 miles south in Chesterfield, Virginia, and his family once had seats at Richmond.
“We always went to both races, but the sport is in a different place now,” he said. “The way to get it back is you have to sell out at least the one time. That and improve short track racing. If you can do those things, then I think you will have a better case to having two races here.”
Back to reality
A week after his fourth consecutive Cup victory on a street or road course, rookie Shane van Gisbergen finished an impressive 14th at Richmond after scraping the wall twice in qualifying and starting 27th.
Though the New Zealand driver said he feels more competitive and comfortable on short tracks such as Richmond, his inexperience remains a major hurdle. At Richmond, the rookie tried to improve by studying the laps of Hamlin and Trackhouse Racing teammate Ross Chastain.
“Different tracks might be different people,” van Gisbergen said. “Look at who stands out and just try and emulate what they’re doing.”
Up next
The Cup Series regular season will conclude Saturday, Aug. 23 at Daytona International Speedway. Harrison Burton is the defending race winner but will be absent from the entry list after losing his ride and moving to the Xfinity Series this season.
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