RICHMOND, Va.: Some doubted whether or not Austin Dillon and his Richard Childress Racing team could keep up the momentum following last Sunday’s runner-up finish at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway.
Not only did Dillon keep up the momentum but throughout Saturday night’s Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway, the 30-year-old driver rocketed to the front early and kept his No. 3 DOW Chevrolet in the hunt throughout a very steady and calm 400-mile race.
Racking up the most stage points of any Cup driver during Stage 1 and Stage 2, Dillon set himself up to earn his second NASCAR Cup Series victory of the season in Stage 3, but the veteran driver likely gave his shot at his fourth career Cup Series triumph during green-flag pit stops when Dillon couldn’t slow fast enough to enter pit road and had to make an extra lap.
Despite surging ahead of the Team Penske duo of Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano during the pit cycle, the hiccup came back to haunt him as Keselowski, Logano and Martin Truex Jr. were able to pass Dillon as the laps dwindled at Richmond.
In the closing laps of the race, Dillon was able to pass Truex momentarily for third, but Truex forged ahead in the closing laps to leave Dillon settling for fourth and his fifth top-five finish of 2020.
After crossing the start | finish line for his 10th top-10 overall this season, Dillon radioed his team and crew chief Jason Alexander, “I just feel like we gave one away.”
Even without the win, the finish stapled a huge accolade for Dillon who recorded back-to-back top-five finishes for the first time in his Cup career.
“Our Dow NORKOOL Chevrolet was so fast,” said Dillon. “We had a massive day for stage points, which is going to help us out big picture-wise. We had a speeding penalty in Stage 1, and to come from the back to the front in that Stage just shows how fast our Chevy was tonight.
“This No. 3 team is on fire right now and showing up when it matters. I have a line at Richmond, and it has been working for me. I run a little lower on the straightaway, and it gives me good forward drive. I saw some other drivers start picking it up and laying the rubber down on that line. It might have hurt us a little bit at the end of the race.”
Dillon also described what caused him to make the crucial mistake of missing the entrance to pit road during Stage 3.
“The biggest thing is when we came to pit road for our second green-flag stop in Stage 3, we were trying to bring everybody down. The No. 1 car was in my mirror on tires. I overdrove that entry just a little bit thinking that I needed to avoid getting rear-ended, and then it was like ‘Oh no, I’m going to hit the red box’ so I had to make another lap around the track. That cost us three seconds. It probably killed our deal, but it was still early, so who knows.
“It was a lot of fun out here tonight, and I think we had the best car tonight, so thanks to Justin Alexander and everyone at RCR and ECR for giving us a solid Chevy tonight.”
But recovering from the pit road miscue in Stage 3 wasn’t Dillon’s only mistake on Saturday night. At the end of Stage 1, the 2018 Daytona 500 champion was caught speeding along with Denny Hamlin sending him to the rear.
A well-balanced car though made the mistake seem easy to recover from during Stage 2 which allowed him to charge to finish second and collect nine valuable stage points.
Exiting Richmond, Dillon heads to Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway next weekend for the final race in the Round of 16 cemented sixth overall and with a 36-point cushion above the cutline.
“We’re headed to Bristol Motor Speedway in a good spot, and it’s exciting to know we still have eight more chances to try and get another win. Our confidence level for Bristol is pretty high.”
In May, Dillon finished sixth after starting 20th.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
