August 28, 2022 | By Lee Spencer

"Crazy faith" carries Austin Dillon into the NASCAR Cup Playoffs

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.—After Austin Dillon took the lead in the Coke Zero Sugar 400, his wife Whitney felt it was time to dance underneath the raindrops.

The jig—along with Dillon’s perseverance--paid off with not only another win at Daytona International Speedway but a spot in the 2022 NASCAR Cup Playoffs.

Dillon didn’t see the front of the field for the first 138 laps on Sunday. But when the skies opened and the frontrunners wrecked, the 32-year-old driver went from 15th to first.

“Crazy faith,” said Dillon. “My wife was in there. She was dancing in the rain. I got upset. I said, ‘Don't be doing that’. She said, ‘Lord, when you have faith like me, you don't have to worry about it.’ I was like, ‘Okay, okay. I got you, baby.’”

Dillon entered the weekend needing a win. He was 17th in the standings before the race. Dillon took the lead on Lap 137 after the leaders crashed in Turns 1 and 2 when the rain dampened the track. During the delay, he killed time with his family.

Following the three-plus hour rain delay, Dillon restarted with the lead but Austin Cindric took control. Dillon on his bumper for the next 13 laps, preparing to make his move. With help from teammate Tyler Reddick, he passed Cindric for the lead with three laps to go.

“There was a lot going on there,” Dillon said. “I knew that if we got to the white—I was afraid that if I waited too long 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 loose.”

The Richard Childress Racing duo extended their lead for a 1-2 finish at the line.

With his fourth Cup win, Dillon advanced the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing team into the Playoffs for the fourth time in his career.

“It's crazy,” Dillon said. “You just never give up and have faith. We had some tough finishes this year, like Charlotte. I beat myself up over that. I made a good move and just didn't finish it off. Today we finished it off.

“I'm so proud of these guys and I'm glad to be going to Victory Lane.”

It’s the first time since 2017 that two RCR Chevys have advanced to the postseason. But Dillon’s win knocked Martin Truex Jr. out of the Playoffs for the first time in seven years.

“We just had too much damage at the end," Truex said. "We had a good spot on the restart and we got a good restart. We got the 2 (Cindric) up front, which is what we were trying to do, but just couldn’t keep up. Just too much damage. It’s s shame. We knew it was going to be tough with so many cars out of the race and the distance between me and the 12 (Ryan Blaney). It was going to be hard to hang on to fourth or better with a car that torn up.”

Cindric finished third followed by Landon Cassill, Noah Gragson, Cody Ware, BJ McLeod, Truex, David Ragan and Kyle Busch. The top 10 finishers were the only drivers on the lead lap.

With a 15th-place result, Ryan Blaney advanced to the Playoffs—but it wasn’t an easy task. The No. 12 Team Penske Ford was collected in the Coke Zero Sugar 400’s first melee 31 laps into the race and initially dropped behind Martin Truex Jr., in the standings. When the race resumed after the delay, Blaney was 15 points behind the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing team. With wrecks and attrition, Blaney finished three points ahead of Truex at the finish.

“It was hurt pretty badly," Blaney said of his car. "We couldn’t keep up with the draft for a while because we just had so much damage. By the time we got five or six laps down you try to stay optimistic about these things. It’s easy to kind of get down on it and you just try to stay positive. Luckily, that positivity worked out for us, but definitely not an ideal start to the day. Luckily, all of our hard work by staying in it paid off at the end.”

Kyle Larson started from the pole of the rain-delayed event originally scheduled for Saturday. The defending Cup champ lasted just 14 laps before his engine expired on Lap 16. Chase Elliott assumed the lead on the first lap. Erik Jones traded the point with Elliott on Lap 22 and again on Lap 27. Four laps later, Jones’s car became loose and as Hamlin backed off behind him, that’s when Blaney plowed into the rear of the No. 11 Toyota. He was running fifth at the time. Christopher Bell spun and hit Blaney a second time.

Bell’s day ended on the first wreck along with Brad Keselowski. For the 2012 champion, it was the first time Keselowski missed the Playoffs since 2013.

“It’s frustrating, but whenever your season is down to one race you’ve got a lot more going on than just that one race,” Keselowski said. “Our team put a lot of effort into getting this car ready.  They brought a great car, so I hurt for them that we didn’t get a chance to show it.”

Blaney returned to competition in 34th as the race restarted with two laps to decide the stage. Logano battled Elliott to win Stage 1. Truex ended up fifth and cut Blaney’s points advantage to 19. The No. 12 Ford restarted 34th on Lap 35 then quickly dropped two laps off the pace—and eventually fell off of the draft.

The complexion of the race changed in the second stage as the drivers on the outside looking into the Playoffs battled for the lead. Bubba Wallace was the early leader before Jones returned to the point. Chris Buescher led Lap 51 before he was shuffled off onto the apron on Lap 64 while running fifth. He dropped to 27th.

On Lap 77, the Toyotas of Hamlin, Busch, Wallace and Truex came to the pits for fuel only. Two laps later, the Fords and Chevrolets came in for service causing a major traffic jam on pit road. Elliott cycled out to the front. He and Reddick exchanged the lead until Busch assumed control on Lap 88. Hamlin shuffled out Reddick and Busch held on to win Stage 2 on Lap 96 with Truex in tow. With his second-place finish in the segment, Truex cut Blaney’s lead to 10.

Joey Logano led the field to green on Lap 101, but before the drivers could complete a lap Reddick turned McDowell on the backstretch. Truex was also collected in the melee with Ross Chastain and William Byron. Christopher Buescher and Bubba Wallace also sustained damage.

“We were going for it,” McDowell said. “You can see the weather is right there, so it’s unfortunate. We fought so hard to put ourselves in position to have a shot at making the playoffs. I felt like that was our shot. We had to go for it and it didn’t work out, but if I’d had lifted and the rain would have come and finished second, I would have been pretty upset with myself.”

The race went green on Lap108 with Logano and Reddick continuing to battle. Seventeen laps later, Alex Bowman triggered the next wreck on the front stretch after hitting the back of Chase Briscoe, who was fourth. Austin Dillon, Aric Almirola, Wallace and Cole Custer were involved. With rain and lightning rolling in, the madness intensified. This time, Logano and Jones drew the yellow flag after colliding on the front stretch.

The race went green on Lap 135, despite rain threatening. Justin Haley held the lead with Daniel Suarez challenging. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. pushed Almirola as Denny Hamlin was making his move on the outside. The field was entering Turns 1 and 2 when Stenhouse tagged Haley, who chirped on the radio, “(Freakin’) rain!”

Ty Dillon got Suarez loose on the inside and the No. 99 Chevrolet slid down onto the apron and came across the front of the field. He collected Denny Hamlin against the wall as the pack piled in from behind.

“We ran into rain in the middle of Turn 1 and just lost it,” Hamlin said after being released from the infield care center. When asked if anything could have been done to avoid the wreck, he replied, “Just throw the caution before the rain came. We had rain down the front, so about 10 seconds before we got into Turn 1, it was raining. So I'm sure the fans felt it and then they watched us all pile in there.

“We were fast, we were super fast. And I thought that I made the right moves at the right time. I got to the lead right at the right time, but it also is a bad time because we were the first to get to the rain.”

Hamlin, who has three Daytona 500 wins, clearly felt the shunt.

“Just shook, mostly,” Hamlin said. “The hit was just massive. That was my first one in this Next Gen (car) that’s been legit, and it's legit.”

Austin Dillon threaded the needle. Kevin Harvick was not as lucky. Although he appeared to find a hole, Ty Dillon slid up right in front of the No. 4 Ford. A total of 15 cars were involved in the wreck including Reddick, Elliott, Busch and Harrison Burton.

NASCAR red-flagged the race on Lap 140 as rain and lightning surrounded the area. All Dillon could do was wait because the sanctioning body was intent on restarting the race.

“They said, get ready—and we stayed ready,” Dillon said. “I have to thank my teammate Tyler Reddick, Bass Pro Shops, everybody that makes this thing happen…We have so many great partners. Chevrolet, Chevrolet, Chevrolet.

“Man, we're in the Playoffs.”

The Playoffs kick off next Sunday at Darlington Raceway.