Austin Dillon Tag

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson waited until late in Sunday’s Wise Power 400 to flex his muscles. But in the end, the driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet held off a charging Austin Dillon by .195 seconds at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., to notch his first victory of the season, his second at the 2-mile track and the 17th of his career. In a race that featured 12 cautions for 59 laps, Larson, who started from the rearRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – When the green flag flies on Sunday to kick off the 2022 Daytona 500, the NASCAR Cup Series will be venturing into unknown territory. For more than six decades, the sport has been making the pilgrimage to the Daytona high banks to win the sport’s most prestigious race and write themselves into the record book as Daytona 500 champion, but this year it’s a whole new ballgame. With the introduction of the Next Gen car for the 2022 season, drivers and teamsRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service LOS ANGELES — At the end of a transformative NASCAR experience that took the City of Angels by storm, Joey Logano held off hard-charging pole winner Kyle Busch to triumph in Sunday’s Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum. Logano got the lead on Lap 116, moments before Kyle Larson retaliated against Justin Haley for earlier contact that was not of Haley’s doing. Larson steered toward the bottom of the track, knocking Haley’s Chevrolet into the concrete Jersey barrier on the frontstretch. In the competitiveRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Kyle Larson did the heavy-lifting on Sunday, leading nine different times for a race-high 130 laps, ultimately crossing the finish line a hefty 3.619-seconds ahead of the field to earn a NASCAR Cup Series-best ninth win of the season (15th of his career) in the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway. It is the third consecutive race win for the 29-year old Californian and the second time this season he’s won three in a row. The last time a driver won three straight racesRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DARLINGTON, S.C. – Holding off regular-season champion Kyle Larson throughout a thrilling final green-flag run in Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, Denny Hamlin is winless in 2021 no more. Hamlin maintained control of his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota as Larson buried his No. 5 Chevrolet into Turns 3 and 4 on the final lap. Larson gave Hamlin a tap, but Hamlin blocked the top lane and got to the finish line .212 seconds ahead of the runner-up. “He droveRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor For the 16 drivers battling it out in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, the pressure is already immense. Add in a tough Playoff opener in Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington and that pressure has the tendency to boil over. For Kyle Busch, that came just 10 laps into Stage 2 when contact between him and Austin Dillon in Turn 2 sent Busch’s car for a four-wheel slide into the outside wall, causing heavy damage to his No. 18 Camry. The damage was too muchRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. Tyler Reddick came into Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona as the 16th driver in the NASCAR Cup Series points standings with his Richard Childress Racing teammate Austin Dillon on the outside looking in. After a wild night at the World Center of Racing, Reddick will leave right where he came in, with the final spot in the Cup Series Playoffs after finishing sixth, while Dillon fell just short of unseatingRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The NASCAR Cup Series regular season comes to an end right where it all began back in February as Daytona International Speedway is set to host Saturday night’s running of the Coke Zero Sugar 400. Two battles will be taking place on Saturday as Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin are set to duke it out for the regular season championship, while just one spot remains up for grabs in the Playoffs. Of the drivers still looking to race their way in, TylerRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Richard Childress Racing’s stress levels were already chaotic entering Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway. Especially for one Austin Dillon, who was 28 points behind teammate Tyler Reddick for the 16th and final playoff spot. With just a single race left in the regular season, the stress levels reached the summit after Dillon’s hard crash at the end of Stage 2. After holding off Brad Keselowski for the sixth spot to collect five stage points, Dillon would get clipped by Keselowski and sentRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor INDIANAPOLIS – Throughout Sunday’s Verizon 200 on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course, the curbing in Turn 6 was a point of concern, but when a debris caution set up a late race restart, those concerns took a drastic turn for the worse. After taking a pounding from the heavy stock cars and undergoing repairs during every caution, it was only a matter of time before the compromised curbing caused a major issue and a restart with five laps remaining in regulation became the tipping point.Read More