Editor’s note: This is the 17th in a series in which we review the top 30 drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series in reverse order of the 2025 final standings.
Driver: Austin Dillon, No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
Crew chief: Richard Boswell
Final 2025 ranking: 15th
Key stats: 1 win, 1 top fives, 5 top 10s, 119 laps led
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How 2025 ended: As Dillon has proven able to do in his career, the 35-year-old North Carolinian again won in the clutch, claiming his only victory of the season at Richmond Raceway — the next-to-last race on the regular-season schedule. It was enough to propel Dillon to a playoff bid and boost an otherwise lackluster season. Unfortunately, the opening round of the playoffs was tough for the team, with Dillon finishing 23rd or worse in two of the three races and being eliminated from title contention early. His best finish in that final 10-race run was 13th at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Dillon would, however, go on to beat fellow title contender Josh Berry in that stretch of competition to finish 15th in the final points standings.
Best race: Undoubtedly, Dillon’s best single outing was his August victory in the Richmond night race — a high-profile event he’s now won in back-to-back years. Dillon’s famous No. 3 Chevrolet led 107 laps — second-most on the night and tenfold what he’d led previously on the season. Unlike his dramatic 2024 Richmond victory at the finish line, Dillon held the field off for the final 49 laps of a long green-flag stretch to end the race and hoist his sixth career Cup Series trophy.
RELATED: 2026 Cup Series schedule | Austin Dillon driver page
Other season highlights: In addition to delivering yet another clutch victory at the 0.75-mile Richmond track and earning his fifth career playoff bid, Dillon turned in a three-race stretch of top-10 finishes at three vastly different tracks — 10th place at the half-mile Bristol Motor Speedway and also at the 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway the next week, followed by a seventh-place run at the 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway. His diversity was impressive, earning him five top-10 finishes (including a 10th-place run at the 0.875-mile Iowa Speedway) across five different oval sizes.
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Stat to know: Remarkably, Dillon’s final season statistics — one victory, one top five and five top-10 finishes — match his output in 2024 exactly. Dillon’s 119 laps out front are the most for him since 2020. And his average finish of 20.8 is his best mark in the category since 2022.
Quotable: “It’s funny. I think we come out swinging, we kind of take a dip and then we come back. I think RC [Richard Childress, team owner] has to yell at us at the right time, I guess, and then we get going again. I don’t know why that is. I’d really love to figure that out, solve for it, but at least we’re finding speed at the right time, because I think that’s key in this sport now and in every sport.” — Austin Dillon on his team’s typical season uptick toward the end of the regular season schedule.
Looking ahead: This season in particular, Dillon took on a more active role in leading the entire Richard Childress Racing organization. Not only has he led the driver charge on track, but the 35-year-old is devoting more time to the overall direction of his grandfather’s storied championship organization. Dillon’s Richmond victory ensured that RCR teams have had wins in the last four consecutive seasons. But the low number of top fives (only one for Dillon and only three for teammate Kyle Busch) and the relatively few laps led (119 for Dillon and 88 for Busch) illustrate the need for overall improvement at the multitime championship team. To that end, RCR has announced changes among both its technical and leadership teams. And of course, Dillon’s win, playoff bid and versatility in his season, paired with crew chief Boswell, bodes well for the future.
