This year, Richard Childress Racing (RCR) has just a single entry in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs… and surprisingly, it doesn’t belong to two-time series champion Kyle Busch.
For the second straight year, Austin Dillon drove to victory at Richmond Raceway, earning his sixth career victory at the NASCAR Cup Series level, and locking the No. 3 Chevrolet team into the 10-race postseason at the eleventh hour.
Dillon, and all of Richard Childress Racing for that matter, were not having an amazing season to that point, with the Lewisville, North Carolina-native sitting outside the top-25 in point standings when the victory occurred.
Now, with the points reset ahead of Sunday’s Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, Dillon has a legitimate shot to get regrouped and launch himself up the point standings among his fellow post-season contenders.
The real question, though: Is Dillon in a so-called lame-duck situation? Is the No. 3 Chevrolet all but guaranteed to be a first-round elimination, come to the end of the Bass Pro Shops Night Race in three weeks?
“I think we are very capable of transferring to the next round,” Dillon said during Playoff Media Day on Wednesday. “So that’s where I would start. That’s success. I would have said making the Playoffs at one point this year would have been a huge goal. But now, at this point, we’ve got an opportunity. It’s like when momentum hits in the sports world, you’ve got to take advantage of it.”
Being counted out, even before Dillon and Richard Childress Racing have had the opportunity to hit the racetrack, is without a doubt a motivator for the former NASCAR Xfinity Series and Craftsman Truck Series champion.
“I always use it as fuel, but I feel like I have really good confidence and a calm about it. I don’t have anything to prove in that sense. I’m just really happy with where we’re at as an organization because [during] the first quarter of the season, I would have said differently. I feel confident. I feel good that we can execute and make a good push. We’re one of the last teams to win on a regular oval, so.”
This season marks the sixth NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs berth for the 35-year-old driver in 12 full-time seasons of competition at NASCAR’s top level, and his first since 2022. The driver of the iconic No. 3 has never scored a top-10 points finish, coming home 11th in final standings on three separate occasions (2017, 2020, and 2022).
“I’m excited,” Dillon added. “I have a different perspective, probably, from where we were, or where we are now, and I’ve raced for championships before and won them in other series, so it’s not like I’m bad in that situation or novice in that situation. I feel like I’m built for that. So now we just got to go do it.”
Should Dillon be successful in capturing the NASCAR Cup Series championship this Fall at Phoenix Raceway, he will become the first driver to ever successfully win a title in the NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series, and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.
Everything at this level – the top-level of stock car racing on the planet – is more difficult, even just being in the conversation to have a shot at the Playoffs. Dillon agrees and says that it can really take a toll on a driver.
“This is what we do it for. This is for the championship. It’s for the trophy that a select few have ever been rewarded with, and so that’s the only way you would have it, is to go to battle each and every day and try to get to this point. We’re in a heck of a schedule right now, like 28 straight weeks, but when you win Richmond, like we did, you look back at all the time and effort spent in the simulator, the time and effort put in… it’s worth all of it, and it almost motivates you to go do more. Like, now I’m ready to rock. It’s validated. It can happen.”
Dillon and the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing team enter Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500 as the 15th seed in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, two points behind the cutline heading into the playoff opener at Darlington.
Coverage of the event will take place on Sunday, August 31, at 6:00 pm ET on USA Network, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90, and the Motor Racing Network.
