By AMANDA VINCENT
After an overtime restart and contact on the final lap, Austin Dillon won the Cook Out 400 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway. It was Dillon’s fifth-career NASCAR Cup Series win, his first since 2022. The victory also put Dillon, 32nd in the points standings, in the playoffs.
VIDEO: Austin Dillon talks about Richmond win
“We just never give up. I can’t thank all the people enough that helped this team,” Dillon said. “Yeah, just got to get it done sometimes.”
VIDEO: Team owner Richard Childress and crew chief Justin Alexander discuss win
Denny Hamlin finished second after leading a race-high 124 laps. Teammates from the Hamlin co-owned 23XI Racing, Tyler Reddick and Darrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr., finished third and fourth.
The first caution of the race for an on-track incident came on lap 399 when Ryan Preece spun from contact from Ricky Stenhouse Jr., sending the race into overtime and extending the distance from a scheduled 400 laps to 408 laps.
Drivers had two sets of softer, faster but quicker-wearing tires for the race. Most teams on the lead lap had one set remaining for the overtime and opted to pit to put them on their cars. Dillon was first off pit road to maintain his lead.
Joey Logano took the lead on the final restart, but on the last lap, Dillon spun Logano, and Hamlin also was collected.
“Apparently, he (Dillon) can come from five car-lengths back and completely wreck someone and, then, wreck another one to the line, and we’re gonna call that racing,” Logano said.
Logano wound up 19th at the checkered flag.
Hamlin’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Christopher Bell was the leader before pitting during a green-flag cycle of pit stops on lap 281. But after Bell suffered a pit-road speeding penalty, Hamlin cycled to the race lead on lap 293.
Bell led 122 laps.
Hamlin gave up that lead to pit during the next cycle of stops on lap 333. When the cycle completed on lap 343, Hamlin was first and Dillon second.
Dillon took the lead from Hamlin on lap 372.
Bell won the 70-lap opening stage with his JGR teammates Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. in second and third.
Hamlin started on the pole with Truex next to him on the front row. Bell quickly moved ip to third to put three JGR cars inside the top-three. Bell, then, took second from Truex on lap 35 and the lead from Hamlin on lap 46.
Daniel Suarez won the 160-lap second stage at lap 230 with Bell and Hamlin in second and third.
Suarez restarted 16th for stage two on the softer option tires. After Hamlin took the lead from Bell on lap on lap 85, Suarez took second from Bell on lap 91.
Suarez, then, took the lead from Hamlin on lap 93.
Suarez still was the leader when the first cycle of green-flag pit stops got underway on lap 121. He pitted from the lead a lap later. The cycle was a lengthy one, because a small handful of drivers, including Kyle Larson and Reddick, waited until about the halfway point of the stage, planning to make only one stop in the stage.
Bell, after pitting, took the lead from Larson, though, on lap 144, before Larson made his stop.
Bell gave up that lead to pit under a second in-stage cycle of stops on lap 176. Suarez was back up front on lap 187 after two green-flag pit stops.
Bell retook the lead by getting off pit road first after stage two. Suarez restarted second but fell to the back of the lead lap when everyone else went to the softer option tires. Suarez was back on the regular tires.
A few laps later, Truex headed to the garage with a failing engine. He was the first driver to fall out of the race, despite making it beyond the halfway point.
“It started missing all of a sudden and losing power, so I came down pit road to check it out, and it was on fire,” Truex said.
Other top-10 finishers at Richmond included Ross Chastain in fifth, Bell in sixth, Larson seventh, Carson Hocevar eighth, Chase Elliott ninth and Suarez in 10th.
