Dillon "pumped" ahead of Richmond return

Austin Dillon returns to the site of what he describes as one of his favorite NASCAR wins as the Cup Series makes its lone visit to Richmond Raceway this weekend.

Dillon and the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing team are the defending winners at Richmond. However, their victory last year was overshadowed by the controversial way in which Dillon won, when he spun Joey Logano in Turn 3 on the final lap and then hooked Denny Hamlin off Turn 4. NASCAR allowed the win to stand but vacated Dillon playoff eligibility that Dillon would otherwise have earned.

“It was still a big day and I’ll always remember it as one of my favorite wins,” Dillon said. “We got the trophy, just not the NASCAR playoffs spot. That part was a struggle, and I hate it for RCR, but this year, going back, I definitely want to go out there and try to win again, but this time, lock ourselves into the playoffs.

“We had a dominant car last year and really came on strong at the end. We had a multiple-second lead and passed two of the best to do it, so that’s pretty cool.”

Although he didn’t lead the most laps in last year’s event, it was Dillon's consistent speed that stood out to the garage. The victory was his first in almost two seasons, and the strongest race he had had in 2024.

“I’m pumped to get to Richmond Raceway,” Dillon said. “I’ve been excited about that one all year. I just want to get there and see if we can be as successful as last year. We had a two-second lead with however many laps remaining in the race, drove past Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano, and the car was just really solid. Unfortunately, an untimely caution put us in a difficult position.

“We worked a little bit this week in the simulator just to see how it correlated, and I thought it correlated very well. We will go there and give it our best shot. We feel like it could be a good opportunity to put us into the NASCAR Playoffs with just two races remaining until the cutoff.”

It’s a déjà vu weekend for Dillon, who is winless yet again as Richmond arrives. Again, he will need a win to get into the postseason. He is 28th in the championship standings.

“It’s nice that Richmond Raceway and Daytona International Speedway are the two tracks that we have left,” Dillon said. “I’m pretty confident at both of them. We’re going to give it our all and try to build momentum and keep building it. Truthfully, we want to win to get into the NASCAR playoffs, but also we need to move ourselves into a better place in the point standings because we’ve had a lot of unfortunate events go on that kept moving us down in the point standings.

“We want to be a top 20 team no matter what, so we have to work our way to the front with the remaining races.”