Dillon makes NASCAR Cup playoffs with redemptive victory at Richmond

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Austin Dillon left no doubt this time that he will make the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs with his second consecutive victory at Richmond Raceway.

A year after his championship eligibility was revoked for wrecking two drivers on the final lap, Dillon grabbed a playoff berth Saturday night with a clean run to the checkered flag on the 0.75-mile oval.

The Richard Childress Racing driver outdueled 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.

With his sixth career victory, 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.

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.