Austin Dillon Rights Last Year's Wrong By Winning Clean at Richmond

Aug 16, 2025; Richmond, Virginia, USA; NASCAR Cup Series driver Austin Dillon (3) celebrates in victory lane after winning the Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway. Mandatory Credit: Amber Searls-Imagn Images | Amber Searls-Imagn Images

A year later, the result was the same -- Austin Dillon in victory lane at Richmond Raceway with the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing team at the conclusion of the Cook Out 400. However, this time around, so much was different.

Like last year, Dillon found himself in a favorable position in the closing laps, however, this time around there was no late-race caution to put the win in doubt. And in the end, Dillon won cleanly, and decisively as he secured a berth in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.

“Man, that feels good. I gotta thank the good Lord above. You know, I really wanted that one. Last year hurt really bad, just going through the whole process of it. But this one feels so sweet,” Dillon stated in his post-race interview on USA Network. “And man, I love Richmond. Our Winchester/Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet was really good.”

The No. 3 Chevrolet was so good on Saturday night that not even a broken rib could keep Dillon from securing his sixth career NASCAR Cup Series win.

“I was thrown out a lot this week. Didn’t feel great, I’m actually racing with a broken rib right now, for the last two weeks,” Dillon admitted. “And man, that was awesome.”

While Dillon was enjoying the spoils of victory lane, Alex Bowman, who finished runner-up to Dillon by a margin of 2.471 seconds, was lamenting his chance at winning being spoiled by lapped traffic.

“A couple of favors,” Bowman quipped when asked what he needed to pull off the win over Dillon. “I sure complained about it on the radio, but that’s just part of what we do, so… Vented a little bit, but had a really good ally 48 in the last run. Just broke the tires off too much in lap traffic. Didn’t get any breaks. That made me kind of work the rears harder than I need to. Just need to be a little better through there to get to him. I certainly think we had the better car. Unfortunately didn’t get there.”

The disappointment was noticeable in Bowman's face, and the reason why is as painful as it is obvious. Bowman, who has had a solid season, but has yet to reach victory lane, now finds himself on the cutline for the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs with one race left to go until the regular season concludes.

What once seemed like a safe cruise to the Playoffs has now become a pressure-packed situation heading into the one place you don't want to go to needing a nice clean run, Daytona International Speedway. Bowman will be on pins and needles all week long as he awaits his fate.

“Yeah, certainly really stressful on a lot of fronts,” Bowman explained. “I mean, 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. Yeah, just need to go execute and try to win the race. That’s all we can really do.”

Behind Bowman were all three Team Penske teammates, led by Ryan Blaney, who finished third. Joey Logano rebounded from starting at the rear of the field with a car that had crashed in practice, to finish fourth, and Austin Cindric captured an impressive fifth-place result.

Kyle Larson, Daniel Suarez, Josh Berry, Brad Keselowski, and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top-10 finishers.

Hamlin had to overcome multiple snafus on pit road, including two sluggish pit stops and a speeding penalty, to take home a well-earned top-10 finish.

William Byron, the regular-season point leader coming into the night, finished the race in 12th. Chase Elliott, the second-place driver, was swept up in a Lap 198 incident, which ended his night and resulted in a last-place finish. Byron's decent night paired with Elliott's nightmarish evening led to Byron locking up the NASCAR Cup Series regular-season championship a week early as he left Richmond with a 68-point lead.

Next up for the NASCAR Cup Series is the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday, August 23. That race will be televised on NBC, and coverage of the race is set to kick off at 7:30 PM ET. The Motor Racing Network (MRN) and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will provide the radio broadcast of the race.