Although Alex Bowman crossed the line behind Austin Dillon in second, Ryan Blaney also made Dillon earn every bit of his victory at Richmond. Blaney was a force all evening, scoring stage points and finding another level of pace in the second half to challenge for the win. Ultimately, he couldn’t close the gap in the final laps and settled for his ninth top-five (P3) of the season.
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Dillon, locked in a tooth-and-nail fight with Blaney, described the battle afterward. “Man, I couldn’t believe the race we were having out there with Ryan. That one section in the race when we were side by side, I had no tires, it was icy slick, you can’t get the throttle down. We’re just riding there beside each other, trying to play like chicken, who can get a little bit more.”
“The tires were done. We were both toast. We were able to just gain that little bit of an advantage. Richard made a great call to hit pit road. I was able to manage my tires at the start of that run and that helped me for the end,” he added.
Dillon also expressed how his grandfather and team owner Richard Childress would react to this win. He said, “One thing that I think really hurt him last year this Richmond race, going over this process, it stung to him because he felt like NASCAR kind of let him down in a way.
“They had to make a call. I got over it. He doesn’t get over those type of things. Hopefully this lets him sleep at night again to that point because this sport is special. It’s given our family a living and a lot of other families a living.”
Blaney, pleased with his own result, admitted he still treats Richmond as a puzzle. He said he studies every angle to find speed, knowing the track has historically been a thorn in his side, while crediting his team for grinding away to improve their finishes there.
Meanwhile, his teammate Joey Logano, the reigning series champion, turned in an impressive drive, climbing from last on the grid in 38th to finish fourth. Austin Cindric rounded out an impressive day for the Penske stable in fifth.
Blaney, already regarded as a master on drafting tracks and a Daytona winner in 2021, now rides into the regular-season finale with Penske firing on all cylinders. With momentum building, he has the chance to close the stretch with a six-race top-10 streak.