Steady hands, weather and luck: How Austin Dillon won the Cup Series race at Daytona

Austin Dillon stood underneath an umbrella three-plus hours before he’d actually claim the checkered flag on Sunday and shrugged his shoulders.

“A minute ago we were a lap down,” the Cup driver told NBC Sports at the time, the race not yet done. He added, “It’s just crazy. You never know what could happen at Daytona.”

It’s true.

In the span of three rain-delayed hours but only 21 laps around Daytona International Speedway, the No. 3 car moved from 16th to first, then to second, then to first once more — all to earn a playoff-sealing trip to Victory Lane in the final regular-season race of 2022.

“It’s crazy,” Dillon told NBC Sports after the race finally concluded, fresh off of a few donuts in front of the crowd that endured the weather delays in Daytona. “You just never give up and have faith.”

Dillon’s finishing blows came in the form of two moves — and each one arrived at the perfect time on Sunday.

The first move? With 22 laps to go, the No. 3 car spotted the race’s biggest wreck in real time, lowered into the apron and somehow avoided the carnage. He was really the only driver to move through the wreck unscathed.

The red flag flew pretty much immediately after that because of rain. A three-plus-hour weather delay commenced.

But Dillon never assumed his racing was done, and that prepared him for his second winning move three hours later with less than 10 laps to go: After losing the lead on the restart, a few laps later, he bumped rookie Austin Cindric out of the way and seized a lead with two laps to go.

And Dillon wouldn’t relinquish it.

“We had some tough finishes this year like Charlotte, man. I’d beat myself up over that,” Dillon continued. “I made a good move and just didn’t finish it off. But today, we finished it off, and I’m so proud of these guys.”

Sunday’s race results knock Martin Truex Jr., who finished with the fourth-most points in the field but with no wins, out of the championship chase.

The only driver in the playoffs who didn’t notch a regular-season win is Ryan Blaney, who edged Truex in the points battle.

“Just not fast enough to keep up with those guys,” said Truex, whose car was severely damaged after the aforementioned huge wreck right before the race’s red flag. “We got the restart we needed and got in a decent spot there, just couldn’t keep up. It’s wide open that whole last run there. It’s a shame. It stinks. But just too much damage to have the speed to do what we needed to do.”

When the field collected ahead of Dillon’s dash to the front, Truex had a 14-point lead on Blaney. But with all of the disabled cars from the wreck parked, Blaney made up the laps he was behind on a large chunk of the field, eliminating the deficit. And when Truex fell from near the lead back to eighth, the point differential swung in favor of Blaney.

Tyler Reddick, Dillon’s teammate for Richard Childress Racing, finished in second. Cindric finished in third.

With the win, Dillon earned his fourth victory in 326 Cup Series races and his eighth top-10 finish in 2022.

Here’s what else you need to know:

Austin Cindric begins final restart well, nudged by Dillon

Cindric, who won the Daytona 500 earlier this regular season, finished second after a late-race physical move by Dillon.

“I got hit by another race car going 190, 200 miles an hour,” Cindric said succinctly when asked what happened on the pivotal play. “Glad I saved it. Glad I had a shot to come back through the field. But he’s racing for a playoff spot. I totally expected to get driven through, it was just a matter of time, but pretty bummed because we had a shot to win today.”

Said Dillon: “There was a lot going on there. I knew that if we got to the white, if we waited too long, I was afraid 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, back there. I knew we were in pretty good shape there at the end.”

Weather affects racing before red flag

The weather loomed large all weekend at Daytona. It delayed the start of the Xfinity race on Friday. It postponed Daytona’s Cup race from Saturday night to Sunday morning.

But it also impacted Sunday’s style of racing. Stage 3 wrecks largely started from P2, P3 and P4 — a result of drivers not wanting to be caught in second when the inevitable storm made landfall.

Michael McDowell, who wrecked in Stage 3, was honest about his aggression. He spoke on it after he emerged from Daytona’s infield care center after wrecking on Sunday.

“It’s superspeedway racing,” McDowell said of his wreck. “We were all going for it there. Obviously I could’ve rolled out of the gas and stayed behind the 22, but if it had been raining right now, I would’ve been in second and been really upset with myself. ...

“We had to win to get in the playoffs, and we just weren’t able to do it.”

Justin Haley was candid, too. The No. 31 team decided to not pit when the rest of the field did late in Stage 3, seizing the lead and banking on the fact that inclement weather wasn’t going to let the race finish under green.

He was right about the weather. But he wasn’t in the lead when the wreck erupted, even though he said rain began to fall a lap before the race was halted with a red flag.

“It was raining for a good lap before we got down there in Turn 1,” Haley said to the NBC broadcast. “Coming out of 2 the previous lap, it was raining, and we just lost traction.”

Haley went on to call NASCAR’s handling of the situation “pretty unacceptable,” adding: “It’s just tough, man. Fighting for my right, fighting for my life every day, so you take these small opportunities and try to make something of it.”

Intense racing at Daytona

The dark clouds looming overhead come Stage 3 made the drivers at or near the front of the pack more aggressive than ever — all of them, as aforementioned, not wanting to be caught playing conservatively when the race was called for good.

But the intensity didn’t begin during the race’s final stretch.

It began early.

Kyle Busch, the multi-time Cup championship winner, cracked a smile and shrugged when asked about Sunday’s intense racing.

“I was just like, ‘Why are we doing this right now? On Lap 2? Lap 3?’” he said. “So I rolled out, and I went to the back, and I’m getting my footing and everything right and just kind of watching everything progress. Then I made my way up toward the front, and we were able to collect some good stage points, which was good.”

There were three other notable wrecks that loomed large on Sunday.

The first arrived on Lap 31: Denny Hamlin appeared to get loose from the front and spin out. Erik Jones, Christopher Bell, Brad Keselowski and Blaney were all involved. The wreck knocked Keselowski out of the race — and subsequently out of the playoffs — and thoroughly damaged Blaney’s car, too.

The second arrived on Lap 102, damaging Truex, McDowell and Blaney further. And the third (right before The Big One) arrived at Lap 125, which significantly damaged Bubba Wallace’s car and sent Chase Briscoe into the air.

In total there were seven cautions for 30 laps, per NASCAR.

Who made the Cup Series playoffs?

The NASCAR Cup Series playoffs begin next week in Darlington. The drivers who make up the 16 car field: Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, Ross Chastain, Joey Logano, William Byron, Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Tyler Reddick, Ryan Blaney, Christopher Bell, Chase Briscoe, Kyle Busch, Daniel Suarez, Austin Cindric, Alex Bowman and Austin Dillon.

Other observations at Daytona

▪ Kyle Larson started on the pole on Sunday, but he was the first driver to exit the race because of a car mechanical issue. He entered pit road and then pushed his car into the garage by Lap 15: “Bummer,” the No. 5 car driver said, “I’m sure we’ll drop a few spots in the points, so that’ll hurt for the playoffs. ... But I guess there’s one positive: I didn’t get caught up in a crash.”

▪ Sunday featured 39 lead changes and 19 different leaders. Elliott led a race-best 31 laps. Jones led 22 laps. And Dillon, the race’s winner, only led 10.

Official results from Daytona

Per NASCAR, inspection in the NASCAR Cup Series garage has been completed. There were no issues.

This story was originally published August 28, 2022 at 5:33 PM.

Alex Zietlow

The Charlotte Observer

Alex Zietlow writes about the Carolina Panthers and the ways in which sports intersect with life for The Charlotte Observer, where he has been a reporter since August 2022. Zietlow’s work has been honored by the Pro Football Writers Association, the N.C. and S.C. Press Associations, as well as the Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE) group. He’s earned six APSE Top 10 distinctions for his coverage on a variety of topics, from billion-dollar stadium renovations to the small moments of triumph that helped a Panthers kicker defy the steepest odds in sports. Zietlow previously wrote for The Herald in Rock Hill (S.C.) from 2019-22. Support my work with a digital subscription