Austin Dillon shocked the world by repeating at Richmond Raceway this past weekend, winning in a much more respectable fashion this time around. It has some calling it the biggest and first real upset of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season.
By some, we mean Jeff Gluck of The Athletic. During the latest episode of The Teardown, he explained why Dillon’s seismic win has thrown a wrench into the playoffs, and the NASCAR season as a whole.
“In a lot of ways, I think we have the first real upset of the season,” Gluck stated. “Certainly, Josh Berry was a surprise, when he went out and won Las Vegas the way he did with the Wood Brothers, but you looked at how fast the Penske cars were early in the season in general, and you were like, ‘Oh yeah, this makes sense.’
“I think this Austin Dillon thing, despite him winning at Richmond last year, that was obviously different circumstances. This was a true playoff-spot-stealing victory. We’re two races to go in the regular season, and this is really shaking things up, for the first time, I feel like, this year.”
It’s easy to see Gluck’s point of view on the matter. Dillon came into the race on Saturday 28th in points. He walked away with a spot in the top-16, no matter what happens the rest of the season moving forward.
It’s a far cry from last season’s debacle, where his win was mired in controversy. Dillon got to keep the trophy, but the No. 3 Chevrolet team wasn’t given entry into the playoffs. Instead, he was made to sit out of the postseason and had no benefits from the win outside of a W to his name.
This time around, Dillon led 107 laps, the second most on the night, to win at Richmond. Simply a dominant performance. Once Bubba Wallace had an issue on pit road with a loose wheel, the door was wide open for Dillon. He held off Ryan Blaney and Alex Bowman to get it done.
Moving forward, next week’s race at Daytona is a must-win for everyone below the NASCAR Playoffs cutline now. Dillon jumped from 28th in points into the top-16 by winning this race cleanly, and to his credit, it wasn’t particularly close in the end.
All told, Richmond was a landmark night for Austin Dillon, and arguably the most impressive drive of his entire career. We’ll see if he can build on it, but it’s always a pleasure to see the No. 3 back in Victory Lane in the NASCAR Cup Series.
— On3’s Jonathan Howard contributed to this article.
