When it comes to Austin Dillon, it’s one task achieved but another task still to accomplish.
Advertisement
What that phrase boils down to is two-fold: First is that Dillon qualified for the NASCAR Cup playoffs by virtue of Saturday night’s win at Richmond Raceway.
Now comes the second part: With his playoff future assured, Dillon now must do everything in his power to help Kyle Busch, his Richard Childress Racing teammate, to also make the playoffs in Sunday’s upcoming regular season finale at Daytona International Speedway.
The Cup standings may read Busch, a two-time champion, is 16th in the points. But that is a gross misnomer. Because Busch has not won a race this season — in fact, he’s riding an 82-race winless streak that dates back to 2023, the longest winless streak of his Cup career — he will head to Daytona in 19th place in the playoff picture.
Because he is 148 playoff points below the cutline, there is only one way for Busch to make the playoffs: he must win on Sunday, period. Even if he were to finish runner-up, it would not be enough to make the playoffs.
And if Busch does not win Sunday at Daytona? He will miss the playoffs for the second straight year, the first time he’s dubiously done so in his Cup career.
So for Dillon, things boil down to this: one down (Dillon makes the playoffs) and one to go (he has to help Busch join him in the playoffs).
“We have to help our guy out in the 8, try to support him as much as we can, get another RCR teammate in there,” Dillon said of Busch. “He’s really good at Daytona. (I have to) do what I can, maybe try to get us bonus points, stages and stuff. The focus probably goes to the 8 now.”
Busch has made 42 career Cup starts at Daytona, with one win (summer race, not the Daytona 500), nine top-fives and 13 top-10 finishes.
Although he finished runner-up in last year’s summer race at Daytona (and seventh the summer before), Busch has still nevertheless struggled at the 2.5-mile superspeedway in recent years. In his last 11 starts there, Busch has six DNFs (five by crash, one due to engine failure), including a crash-related 34th-place finish this past February in the season-opening Daytona 500.
Dillon confident heading into first round of the playoffs
While Dillon undoubtedly wants Busch to join him in the playoffs, Dillon also has to be prepared to go into the playoffs without his teammate if Busch does not win Sunday’s regular season finale at Daytona.
Dillon likes the first round lineup: Darlington, followed by Gateway and wraps up at Bristol. But his history at all three tracks has been marginal at best. He’s never won at any of the first three tracks. Heck, for that matter, he hasn’t won at any of the 10 upcoming playoff venues.
At Darlington, Dillon has two top-fives and five top-10 finishes in 18 Cup starts there. At Gateway, Dillon has one top-10 in three starts there. And at Bristol, which Dillon has long considered to be one of his favorite tracks on the Cup circuit, he has two top-fives and five top-10 finishes in 23 career starts there (including three dirt races).
Still, Dillon is confident he can do well enough in the first playoff round to advance to the Round of 12.
“I like that first round,” said Dillon, who inadvertently thought New Hampshire was in the first round instead of Bristol, when Loudon is in the second round. “Those are places that we run typically well at… I’m all about those three.”
But there was one thing Dillon said after Richmond that can be taken one of two ways: “Yeah, we can play spoiler on those three, for sure.”
The absolute last thing Dillon must have in his mindset is to believe he can only play spoiler in the first round. He has to go into all three opening round races with the same mindset he had going into Richmond this past Saturday night: to win and advance to the second round. Anything less and Dillon won’t advance.
“We can take things we did tonight, strategy-wise, just execution-wise, and take it into the playoffs and we’ll be good,” he said.
For his sake, let’s hope so.
