Cook Out 400: Austin Dillon scores dominant win at Richmond, clinches playoff spot

RICHMOND, Va. — For the second consecutive year, Richard Childress Racing driver Austin Dillon found Victory Lane in the NASCAR Cup Series at Richmond Raceway after a dominant performance in the Cook Out 400 Saturday night under the lights.

Dillon finished fourth in the first two stages, scoring 54 points and leading a career-high 107 laps to clinch a spot in the Cup Series Playoffs. After winning last year’s Richmond summer race controversially, Dillon “did it the right way” this time around, according to the RCR.

“Man, that feels good,” Dillon said. “Got to thank the good Lord above. I really wanted that one. Last year hurt really bad just going through the whole process of it. But this one feels so sweet. Man, I love Richmond. Our Winchester Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet is really good. I was (indiscernible) out a lot this week. Didn’t feel great. I’m actually racing with a broken rib right now for the last two weeks. Man, that was awesome.”

The past three seasons have been the worst in Dillon’s Cup Series career. However, the now six-time Cup Series race winner will secure a guaranteed top-16 finish in the points for the first time since the 2022 season.

“God has timing,” Dillon said. “His timing is the best timing. So excited to get my wife and kids here to celebrate with us. Man, it’s so sweet. My dad prayed with me before the race. He was at our hunting land doing some food plots. It’s just so special. Every one of these means so much to me. My grandfather, for all that he’s put up in believing in me, because there’s been a lot of ups and downs, could have been easy for him to change the drivers in this 3-car. Today it feels really darn good.”

A runner-up finish for Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman was a great day for the No. 48 team. Unfortunately for Bowman, with Dillon’s win, he now finds himself on the cutline heading into the regular-season finale at Daytona. However, he still has a chance at a playoff spot if he can either score 30 more points than Tyler Reddick at Daytona, have no new winner or win the race himself.

“We had a really good No. 48 Ally Chevrolet in the last run, just broke the tires off too much in lap traffic,” Bowman said. “We didn’t get any breaks and that made me kind of work the rears harder than I needed to. 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.”

Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney had a solid day, as the 2023 Cup Series champion earned his first top five at Richmond. Blaney was the second-highest points scorer (46 points) in the Cook Out 400, and he jumped up to fifth in the regular-season standings, being the only Ford driver inside the top 10.

“Overall, honestly, it was a really good night and a really good weekend,” Blaney said. “We got better all night and led some laps. I thought we were in a great position to try to contend for it. I thought running long was the play there because he came up there and passed me. So we were like, let’s try and have a handful of fresher tires. I was trying to be really disciplined when I got back on the racetrack of like, ‘let the tires do their thing and maybe I’ll get to him at the end of this run.’ I don’t know. They just fell off a cliff really hard.

“It kind of surprised me a little bit, but, overall, a good night. I wish we could have been closer. It’s unfortunate that our worst run of the race was our last run, but I don’t really know what we could have done different. It was just one of those odd things, but, overall, a really good finish and a good showing. We work really hard at this place, so hopefully we learned some stuff going forward.”

Results from the 2025 Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway are listed below:

William Byron: 2025 Regular Season Champion

Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron clinched the Regular Season Championship with one race remaining in the regular season. Byron will get an additional 15 playoff points to start this year’s NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.

“It just feels great,” Byron said. “It’s really the best 12th-place finish I’ve ever had. The No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet team came in here and really just did a solid job. We qualified solid. We always want more, but this is definitely our toughest race track. We just kind of came in here, had a solid plan and executed it. All the guys have worked hard through the summer months.

“I feel like this has been the best summer we’ve ever had, speed-wise. We had a lot of tough things happen throughout early July. We had a lot of speed, but some crashes in practice and qualifying. Just some car issues and things that happened. But yeah, it’s just really, really cool. We’re looking forward to the Playoffs.”

Other Race Facts

23XI Racing went from having one of the best days in team history to one of the worst. For the first time, they swept the stages (Tyler Reddick won Stage 1; Bubba Wallace won Stage 2), and looked like the team was going to have a promising day.

After leading a race-high 123 laps, Wallace came down pit road for tires. When he tried to leave, he had a tire that was not tightened all the way, and it rolled off the car while leaving his pit stall. This would effectively end Wallace’s day, as he was only able to battle back to finish 28th. Despite finishing just inside the top 30, Wallace still scored 29 points after finishing second in the first stage and winning the second stage.

The entire 23XI organization finished 28th or worse, with Corey Heim finishing 29th, followed by Riley Herbst (31st) and Reddick (34th).

Team Penske had all three cars inside the top five for the first time since New Hampshire in 2021. Ryan Blaney finished third, then Joey Logano in fourth after starting 38th and Austin Cindric (fifth).

Motorsports reporter Seth Eggert said AJ Allmendinger earned his 115th career free pass, which makes him the all-time leader in the NASCAR Cup Series.

According to NASCAR Insights, Austin Dillon’s 107 laps led marked the first time that the No. 3 car has led over 100 laps since the 1998 Daytona 500. Coincidentally, Dale Earnhardt Sr. also led 107 laps in that race before winning.

Chase Elliott has had an abysmal last couple of races. At Watkins Glen, he finished outside the top 20 for the first time in 2025. Then, this weekend at Richmond, he was involved in a wreck with Kyle Busch that ended his day, resulting in a 38th-place finish. The last time Elliott finished 38th or worse in a Cup Series race was the 2023 Daytona 500.

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