When the checkered flag flew after Saturday night’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Richmond Raceway, Austin Dillon and the No. 3 Chevrolet team of Richard Childress Racing took the win.
As a result, he became the 14th driver to make the Playoffs via a victory leaving only two of the 16 Playoff positions undecided. That will be taken care of this Saturday at the always unpredictable track of Daytona International Speedway.
Looking at the standings heading into the regular season finale, Tyler Reddick and Alex Bowman are 15th and 16th, respectively…for now.
Reddick’s Night Literally Wrecked at Richmond
Heading into Richmond, Reddick was +117 points to the good. However, it was a rough outing after getting spun while running up front resulting in a 34th-place finish and now +89 markers to the good.
After Reddick led 41 laps and won Stage 1, the No. 54 of Ty Gibbs came up the track after contact with the No. 99 of Daniel Suarez just as Reddick was trying to get past both of them during Stage 2.
“Daniel just got impatient and knocked the 54 out of the way and that’s what took us out,” Reddick shared post race via Kelly Crandall of RACER.com. “Unfortunately, I had a feeling that was going to happen, and I was just hoping more respect was going to be given.
“He went in there and he moved the 54. I don’t know if he meant for it to wreck me, but nonetheless, I feel like time and time again Daniel has done that type of thing.”
Suarez did speak out about the wreck and gave his view.
Bowman Knows What’s Needed
Bowman, on the other hand, had a commendable night finishing second. Towards the end, he used tire management and a fast car to make his way past the No. 12 of Ryan Blaney, who led laps and had a spirited side-by-side battle with Dillon in the closing laps.
With the runner-up finish, Bowman and the No. 48 Chevrolet Hendrick Motorsports team knows what needs to be done at Daytona being +60 points above the cut line.
“Yeah, certainly really stressful on a lot of fronts,” he said post-race. “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.”
“We just need to go execute and try to win the race. That’s all we can really do.”
If a non-race winner were to bust into the Playoffs with a victory, Bowman would be on the outside looking in for the remaining 10 races of the year. That’s why a solid run like Richmond helps with so much on the line.
“We had a really good No. 48 Ally Chevrolet in the last run, just broke the tires off too much in lap traffic,” he said. “We didn’t get any breaks and that made me kind of work the rears (tires) harder than I needed.
“We just needed to be a little better through there to get to him (Austin Dillon, race winner). I certainly think we had the better car, but unfortunately, we didn’t get there. Blake (Harris, crew chief) and all the guys did a great job. Just came up a little bit short.”
Coming a little bit short at Daytona won’t make the cut.
NASCAR Cup Series has Just Two Playoff Openings Heading to Daytona