NASCAR: Dillon beats Coke Zero 400 depleted field

In NASCAR, rubbing is racing.

So is plowing the race leader out of the way and almost into the wall.

With very few cars left running after Sunday’s rain delayed Coke Zero 400 NASCAR Cup race, Austin Dillon pushed leader Austin Cindric out of the way late in the race and scored a clutch victory that propelled the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing team into the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.

If you bet on Dillon Sunday, you won big as almost no one figured he was talented enough to win.

Dillon’s triumph with about 10 cars still running launches him into the postseason for the first time since 2020, while also snapping a 78-race winless streak that dates back to Texas Motor Speedway in 2020.

After avoiding serious damage in a wreck off Turn 4 on lap 125, Dillon survived a subsequent 13-car melee in Turn 1 and took the lead before rain halted the race. After a red-flag period of 3 hours, 19 minutes, 57 seconds, Dillon fell behind 2022 Daytona 500 winner Austin Cindric and trailed him from the restart on Lap 145 of 160 until he made the race-winning move on Lap 158.

As the cars reached Turn 1, Dillon tapped Cindric’s No. 2 Team Penske Ford, and the Chevrolets of Dillon, Reddick and Landon Cassill moved past as Cindric made a magnificent save on the apron. Reddick, the race runner-up, closed up to the bumper of Dillon’s No. 3 Chevrolet and drafted with his teammate to the finish line, holding off a last-ditch run from Cindric, who finished third, just .140 seconds behind the winner.

“There was a lot going on there. I knew that if we got to the white (final lap), I was afraid somebody would—if I waited too long, I was afraid somebody would wreck behind us, so I wanted to go ahead and get the lead. We were able to get it.

“I had a big run to him, and then I had my teammate, the 8 (Reddick), back there. I knew we were in good shape there to the end. He did a good job checking up any kind of run. Just a little too much push there and got him (Cindric) loose.”

Cindric said the bump was fair game, give what was on the line for Dillon.

“I think that’s fair game any race of the season, but that meant a lot for him to win that race,” Cindric told Fox Sports’ Bob Pockrass on pit road. “He had three cars that were certainly going to be able to work with him…

“I feel like he got the run too late, and then he hit me straight on the entry to the corner. Just glad I saved it, glad I got a shot to still come back up through the field—but I hate losing.”

As a result, Ryan Blaney scored the final position in the playoff grid, edging Martin Truex Jr. by just three points for the 16th spot. Both drivers were involved in accidents in Sunday’s event, and Blaney seemed to suffer the more significant damage at Lap 31 that hampered his No. 12 Ford. But with numerous cars eliminated from earlier carnage, Blaney rose through the running order to finish 15th despite sitting six laps down. Truex fell to eighth at the checkered flag.

When heavy rain stopped the action 21 laps from the finish, it looked as if Dillon might be awarded the victory.

As the cars sped toward Turn 1 on Lap 138, a sudden rain began to fall. The cars of Justin Haley, Daniel Hemric and Denny Hamlin broke loose at the front of the field, and the cars behind them were unable to stop on the slick asphalt and plowed into the wreck.

Dillon’s No. 3 Chevrolet, which had been damaged in a wreck off Turn 4 on Lap 125—and ended its slide facing backward on pit road—was the first to emerge from the Lap 138 chaos at cautious pace and shortly thereafter was confirmed as the race leader by NASCAR.

“We ran into rain in the middle of Turn 1 and just lost it,” Hamlin said of the 13-car pileup. “We had rain down the front. So about 10 seconds before we got into Turn 1, it was raining. I’m sure the fans felt it, and then they watched us all pile in there.”

NASCAR opted to wait out the rain, dried the track and lifted the red flag at 3:54 p.m. The resumption didn’t change the winner, but it enabled Blaney to move up the leaderboard past wrecked cars to a 15th-place finish, enough to eliminate eight-place finisher Truex from the Playoff.

Cassill came home fourth, followed by Noah Gragson, as only 10 drivers finished on the lead lap, and only 17 were running at the end.

Early in the race, Blaney got a serious scare, as far as his Playoff hopes were concerned. On Lap 31, Blaney’s No. 12 Team Penske Ford was third in line in the bottom lane behind Erik Jones and Denny Hamlin when Jones’ No. 43 Petty GMS Chevrolet got loose and lost momentum off Turn 2.

Blaney slammed into the back of Hamlin’s Toyota, turning the No. 11 Camry toward the infield. As the bottom lane compressed, Christopher Bell’s No. 20 Toyota spun behind Blaney, shot across the track and knocked Blaney’s Mustang into the outside wall, severely damaging the right-front quarter of Blaney’s car.

The eight-car accident knocked Bell and Brad Keselowski out of the race, denying Keselowski a Playoff spot for the first time since 2013.

“Somebody wrecked in front of me,” Keselowski said. “I’m not really sure exactly what happened, but there were just a bunch of cars wrecking in front of me. I didn’t have anywhere to go and couldn’t slow down in time, so I hate it for our team.”

“We had a really fast race car. We were working our way to the front.”

Truex earned six points with a fifth-place finish in Stage 1 and raced to a runner-up result in Stage 2, good for nine points, as Blaney continued to lose laps to the lead pack. The first two stages reduced Blaney’s lead over Truex in the standings to 10 points, but a wreck on the backstretch early in the final stage halted Truex’s charge.

On Lap 102, Michael McDowell, running second, pulled out of line with a run on leader Joey Logano, but Reddick’s off-center hit to McDowell’s back bumper sent the No. 34 Ford rocketing into the outside wall. The contact ignited an eight-car melee that eliminated the machines of McDowell, Ross Chastain and William Byron.

The wreck ended the Playoff hopes for McDowell, who had restarted in the lead on Lap 101. Truex’s car was damaged, too, but not terminally. Ultimately, though, it was the damage in that wreck that kept the 2017 series champion from maintaining a gap over Blaney sufficient to earn the final Playoff spot.

“That’s definitely a lot more stressful than I wanted coming into here, but I just got to give a lot of props to the 12 group, you know, for fixing it and sticking with it all day,” Blaney said. “That’s why you do it.

“Your day can start off like that, and you just stay with it and stay in the game. And it was definitely beneficial for us.”

The event was pushed to Sunday morning after rain washed through Daytona Beach on Saturday night. The chaos began early when Blaney and others collided on Lap 31 at the exit of Turn 2, putting a sharp, early focus on the points battle. Blaney was sent right-front-first into the outside SAFER barrier and was significantly slowed for the remainder of the race.

At Lap 102, Truex suffered damage in another multicar crash, receiving left-side contact from Ross Chastain after Michael McDowell spun near the head of the field. Truex was able to remain on the lead lap and scored 15 stage points to Blaney’s none.

Kyle Larson, a winner last week at Watkins Glen International, exited early after an engine failure at Lap 14.

Race Results

Average Speed of Race Winner:  138.942 mph.

Time of Race:  2 Hrs, 52 Mins, 44 Secs. Margin of Victory:  0.128 Seconds.

Caution Flags:  7 for 30 laps.

Lead Changes:  39 among 19 drivers.

Lap Leaders:   K. Larson 0;C. Elliott 1-21;E. Jones 22-23;C. Elliott 24-26;E. Jones 27-30;C. Elliott 31-34;J. Logano 35-36;C. LaJoie 37-40;B. Wallace 41-42;E. Jones 43;C. LaJoie 44-45;E. Jones 46-50;C. Buescher 51;E. Jones 52-58;W. Byron 59;E. Jones 60-62;A. Bowman 63;D. Hamlin 64-76;J. Logano 77-78;B. McLeod(i) 79-80;C. Elliott 81;T. Reddick 82-85;C. Elliott 86-87;K. Busch 88-89;T. Reddick 90-91;K. Busch 92-96;M. Truex Jr. 97;T. Dillon 98;M. McDowell 99-100;J. Logano 101-106;T. Reddick 107-108;J. Logano 109;T. Reddick 110-114;A. Bowman 115-124;J. Logano 125-127;J. Haley 128-135;D. Suarez 136-137;A. Dillon 138-144;A. Cindric # 145-157;A. Dillon 158-160.

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led):  Chase Elliott 5 times for 31 laps; Erik Jones 6 times for 22 laps; Joey Logano 5 times for 14 laps; Austin Cindric # 1 time for 13 laps; Tyler Reddick 4 times for 13 laps; Denny Hamlin 1 time for 13 laps; Alex Bowman 2 times for 11 laps; Austin Dillon 2 times for 10 laps; Justin Haley 1 time for 8 laps; Kyle Busch 2 times for 7 laps; Corey LaJoie 2 times for 6 laps; BJ McLeod(i) 1 time for 2 laps; Bubba Wallace 1 time for 2 laps; Michael McDowell 1 time for 2 laps; Daniel Suarez 1 time for 2 laps; Ty Dillon 1 time for 1 lap; Martin Truex Jr. 1 time for 1 lap; Chris Buescher 1 time for 1 lap; William Byron 1 time for 1 lap.

Stage #1 Top Ten: 22,9,21,18,19,7,23,47,43,34

Stage #2 Top Ten: 18,19,11,22,23,38,8,4,47,3