By AMANDA VINCENT
Austin Dillon defended his win of the Cook Out 400 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway a year ago by winning the event, again, Saturday night. It was his first win of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, securing a playoff berth with one race remaining in the regular season.
“Man, that feels good. Got to thank the good Lord above. I really wanted that one,” Dillon said. “Last year hurt really bad, just going through the whole process of it. But this one feels so sweet. Man, I love Richmond.
“Our Winchester Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet is really good. I was out a lot this week. Didn’t feel great. I’m actually racing with a broken rib right now for the last two weeks.
“Man, that was awesome.”
Alex Bowman finished second. A trio of Team Penske drivers — Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano and Austin Cindric — rounded out the top-five.
“Yeah, it’s a great night by Penske to have all of us right there,” Blaney said. “Obviously, we would have liked to have been one, two, three, but it’s a really good night. I thought we had a great shot at having a chance to win it, there.”
Dillon led 107 laps of the 400-lap of the race, mostly in the last 150 laps.
“Tire management. I’m probably the slowest to get going on some of these tracks when it really comes to high grip. But when it comes to these places and taking care of your stuff, I’ll go against the best of them,” Dillon said.
Dillon gave up a lead to pit on lap 292. Blaney was the leader when the cycle of stops completed, but Dillon retook the lead on lap 340.
A lap after retaking the lead, Dillon, again, gave up the position to pit. He cycled back to the lead on lap 352.
Tyler Reddick won the 70-lap opening stage after starting the race on the front row and taking the lead from pole sitter Ryan Preece on lap 59. Reddick’s 23XI Racing teammate Darrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr. was second at stage-end after passing team co-owner Denny Hamlin late in the stage.
Preece was one of a handful of drivers who didn’t pit for new tires during the stage. On old tires, he fell outside the top-10 by the end of stage one. But he had an extra set of tires for the next stage.
The 23XI team swept the stages with Wallace winning the 160-lap second stage at lap 230. Daniel Suarez was second and Blaney third.
Wallace was first off pit road after stage one to restart as the leader for stage two. He gave up the lead to pit on lap 130.
After the cycle, Reddick led laps before Wallace retook the lead on lap on 164. Wallace, again, gave up the lead to pit on lap 181.
Soon after Wallace headed to pit road, Reddick spun after being clipped by Christopher Bell. When the cycle of stops completed under the caution, Wallace returned to the lead.
The Reddick caution was the first of three yellow flags for on-track incidents in the second stage. After a lap-192 caution for a Cody Ware spin, the yellow flag waved, again, for a 12-car crash on lap 198 that began with a Chase Briscoe spin. Other drivers collected included Kyle Busch, Hendrick Motorsports teammates Chase Elliott and William Byron, Justin Haley, Hamlin, Cole Custer, Brad Keselowski, Todd Gilliland, Ross Chastain and Erik Jones.
After stage two, Michael McDowell was first off pit road as the new leader after a two-tire stop. But on lap 242, Dillon took the lead and Wallace soon took second.
Wallace led a race-high 123 laps but fell out of contention when his left-front wheel after a lap-291 pit stop.
Kyle Larson finished the Cook Out 400 in the sixth position. Suarez finished seventh, Josh Berry eighth, Keselowski ninth and Hamlin 10th.
“Just kind of a missed race,” Hamlin said. “We were really bad on pit lane. I sped. Team had a lot of bad stops, and this track – you can’t give up track position, and we did. I thought we were fortunate to get back to the top-10, there. The only reason we did is we had a fast Progressive Camry.”
With a 12th-place finish, Byron clinched the regular-season championship.
