Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin may have lost the Cook Out 400 at Richmond in heartbreaking fashion, but they’re not the only drivers who have a bone to pick with Austin Dillon after Sunday’s chaotic final lap.
Dillon’s victory not only vaulted him from 32nd to 26th in the points standings, but it also clinched the sixth playoff appearance of Dillon’s 11-year Cup Series career.
Lost in the smoke and sparks of Sunday’s finish was the battle for the final few spots in the 2024 NASCAR playoffs, as the tension around the playoff bubble only rose after Dillon’s unlikely triumph made him the 13th different winner so far in the 2024 season.
Only three playoff spots are available with three races remaining in the regular-season. If pressure wasn’t already on the drivers hovering around the bubble, it certainly is now.
Ty Gibbs may be the biggest “loser” out of any bubble driver after Richmond. While Gibbs’ uninspiring 22nd-place effort isn’t a playoff-caliber run, Dillon’s win only moved the points battle that much closer to the 21-year-old. Gibbs now sits just 18 points above the cut line, a staggering shift considering he was 70 points above the cut line after Nashville on June 30.
Despite Dillon’s 11th-hour win, Bubba Wallace came out of Richmond smelling like a rose compared to his fellow bubble drivers. The Mobile, Ala., native gained 10 points on the cut line with a fourth-place finish on Sunday — the fourth top-10 finish in the past five races for the surging No. 23 team.
“We knew we had to work coming in here, obviously being below (the cut-off line), and our team did just that,” Wallace said. “We fought hard. We did not have the best day on pit road, not from a lack of effort. I appreciate them getting better all night. They showed up when it mattered on the last stop — kept us in it. Just execution.”
Ross Chastain wasn’t so lucky, however. Like Wallace, Chastain brought home a top-five finish at Richmond — his best finish since Sonoma on June 9 — only to find himself three points below the playoff cut line afterward. It’s the type of tough luck that has befallen the struggling No. 1 team of late, as Chastain had one of his best cars of the season only to have Dillon potentially snatch a playoff berth from right under his nose.
Chris Buescher fall below the cut line by three points was more thanks to a pit-road mistake that led to an 18th-place finish, but it’s fair to say the 20 points that Buescher lost to the cut line on Sunday can’t be placed solely on his shoulders. Dillon’s victory now has Chastain and Buescher tied for 17th in the standings as the series heads to Michigan on Sunday.
In a year that has now seen two drivers from below the top-16, Dillon and Austin Cindric, win their way into a playoff berth, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see another underdog snag a playoff spot over the next three races. That could very well happen on Aug. 24 at the Daytona International Speedway, which has long been a breeding ground for upset victories.
But first up is this Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway, where Buescher is the defending champion.
“I’m excited to go back and try to defend that one,” Buescher said. “We’ve made some big gains in the Ford camp in the last several months, and I’m excited to see how that can play out at another big racetrack where we know we were able to do well last year.”
–Samuel Stubbs, Field Level Media
