Austin Dillon reversed his fortunes at Richmond on Saturday night, winning the Cook Out 400 to earn a playoff spot and a little bit of sweet redemption after the mess of a year ago. It wasn’t easy.
Dillon, of course, was stripped of his playoff eligibility in the 2024 edition of the race after wrecking Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin in a mad dash to the finish line. He kept the win, but the entire saga painted his team in a poor light.
So Austin Dillon was thrilled to get the win, especially because of what it meant to his grandfather, Richard Childress. He explained, via FOX Sports’ Bob Pockrass.
“One thing I think that really hurt him was last year over this whole Richmond race, going through that process, and it stung to him because he felt like NASCAR kind of let him down in a way,” Dillon said. “Which, they had to make a call, and I got over it. But he doesn’t get over those type of things.
“Hopefully this lets him sleep at night again to that point, because this sport is special and it’s given our family a living and a lot of other families a living.”
Austin Dillon will cherish this one, to be sure. The race opened up for him after Bubba Wallace had a wheel get loose.
From there, Dillon battled head-to-head with Ryan Blaney for the lead. He admitted it was an intense affair.
“Man, I couldn’t believe the race we were having out there with Ryan,” he said. “That one section in the race when we were side by side, I had no tires, it was icy slick. You can’t get the throttle down. And we’re just riding there beside each other trying to play… it’s like chicken. Who can get a little bit more?”
That’s when Richard Boswell made a terrific call to bring Austin Dillon into pit road. He came out almost 10 seconds ahead of Blaney, albeit with a slight tire deficit.
It was enough. Dillon recapped the win.
“The tires were done,” he said. “We were both toast, and we were able to just gain that little bit of advantage. And Richard made a great call to hit pit road. And when we did that I was able to manage my tires at the start of that run, and I think that helped me at the end.”
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