Austin Dillon Wins At Richmond (8-16-25)
By: Becca Cottingham Quimby
All Photo Credit: NASCAR
We head to Richmond Raceway for Saturday night racing under the lights. Ryan Preece brings us to green. The biggest issue will be around lap fifty the tires started losing overall speed at the track. Practice was in the heat of the day and they started dropping off around three seconds. However, with the temperatures slowly dropping it is possible that maybe they can stretch past fifty laps. Alex Bowman had an issue on pit road as he had to fix the passenger side window. Between laps twenty and twenty-one, we did see Jesse Love getting sideways and making contact with other drivers. Around halfway into stage one Hendrick Motorsports started making pit stops. The tires that come off the teams that pitted around lap thirty, are looking worn but not missing chunks of tires. Which is good for crew chiefs but maybe not for drivers. With drivers deciding to make pit stops around lap thirty multiple drivers up lapped themselves. Denny Hamlin not only unlapped himself but he drove himself back almost to Ryan Preece. Tyler Reddick and Denny Hamlin went to pass Ryan Preece and Denny Hamlin got into the wall. This allowed Tyler Reddick to beat out Denny Hamlin. Denny Hamlin will end up staying behind Tyler Reddick for the remaining laps and Tyler Reddick will win stage one.
When the pits opened after the stage multiple drivers had penalties: Denny Hamlin was too fast exiting. Chase Elliott and AJ Allmendinger both for vehicle interference. Chase Elliott was when he was entering his pit box. It appears he was over one of the officiating lines. These are big penalties for drivers who had a great first stage. Bubba Wallace leads us back to green for stage two. Ryan Preece will start those teams that are doing multiple pit stops during stage two. With green flag pit stops we are seeing errors with speeding on pit road. Corey Heim was caught speeding on pit road which will cause him to have to do a pass-through penalty. This also puts him down an additional lap. Kyle Busch will be the next driver to get hit with a speeding penalty. The penalties on green flag pit stops are adding up for multiple drivers. For some drivers, we will have one more pit stop before the end of the stage.
Denny Hamlin will have another bad pit stop which is putting him in situations where he has to push his car. We will get our first caution for cause as Daniel Suarez makes contact with Ty Gibbs. Ty Gibbs will then make contact with Tyler Reddick. This spins Tyler Reddick out which brings out the caution. Drivers who have not pitted were able to grab needed tires and fuel while under caution. We get back to racing and drivers try to go three and four wide. This does not work well for Cody Ware as he will spin out. We get back to racing and we get a parking lot on the race track at Richmond. Chase Briscoe gets bumped as everyone tries to go into turn four. This triggers a change reaction and backs up with multiple drivers. Chase Elliot got clipped and hit the wall very hard. There were at least twelve drivers involved in the accident. For some teams, this accident will be beneficial as tires could be a huge factor at the end of the race. Kyle Busch is all over the track to find the best spot on the track for him to move forward on the track. Bubba Wallace holds off Daniel Suarez to win stage two after what was an eventful stage.
We head into stage three and before we get started we see multiple different strategies on pit roads. Michael McDowell’s crew went with two tires to start stage three and this gave him the advantage of starting at the front. Christopher Bell’s team did not get a lug nut tightened and had to back him back into his pit box. This will keep him from getting a penalty. When we did get back racing with Michael McDowell only taking two tires, it did not take long for him to go backwards. Austin Dillon was able to pass him and another driver in one pass to take the lead. Depending on the team some teams have three sets of tires and others only have two sets of tires. Tyler Reddick also was able to show his displeasure with Daniel Suarez for the earlier contact, which allowed Ryan Blaney to get around Daniel Suarez. Erik Jones and Carson Hocevar will start the first round of pit road. We see a huge mistake for Bubba Wallace and that team. They lose a tire on pit road as the left front comes off as they do not get it tight. They get him stopped in the Chase Briscoe pit and they can get him back on the track. This will be a pass-through penalty for him. Christopher Bell will be hit with a penalty as well for a commitment cone violation. Ty Gibbs has an issue with a fire in the engine compartment and it appears to have damage to his brakes. He also radioed his team to let them know he had no brake pedal at all. Ty Gibbs also believes they are blowing up after the fire appears to be out. Ryan Blaney will pass Carson Hocevar for the lead. Then we will head into a crazy back-and-forth battle happening on the track back and forth between Austin Dillon and Ryan Blaney. Austin Dillon wants to win the race to redeem himself after last year’s win at Richmond. This did grant him the win, but it did not grant him the ability to move into the playoffs. While Ryan Blaney would like to win the race as Richmond has not been the best track for him in the past. For some teams they are on the two stops we see what could be the final round of pit stops unless a late caution. Or if the team has three sets of tires. Austin Dillon passes Ryan Blaney on the track and then hits pit road. Ryan Blaney waited four laps longer than Austin Dillon to hit pit road in hopes of having something at the end of the race. The big question will be for Ryan Blaney’s team: Did they wait too long or should they have waited longer? Ryan Blaney was running down Austin Dillon. However, Alex Bowman was able to get around him as it appears his tires may have fallen off faster than they expected. Alex Bowman did start to catch Austin Dillon but there were just not enough laps left. Austin Dillon with a decent lead over Alex Bowman will win at Richmond.
