FORT WORTH, Texas – Austin Dillon stayed in front after a restart with two laps to go and beat rookie teammate Tyler Reddick to the checkered flag Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway, giving Richard Childress Racing its first 1-2 finish in a NASCAR Cup Series race in nine years.
With spectators spread out in the stands on a scorching afternoon in the Lone Star State, a very dehydrated Dillon got the flag and did some celebratory burnouts in the No. 3 Chevrolet on the front stretch before going to the infield care center.
“I got a couple IVs in me, feeling great. I felt great once I kind of got in air conditioner. I was wanting to come back out because it stinks to win the race and you’re falling out,” Dillon said when finally on his Zoom call for interviews after the race. “But I gave it all. I left it all out there. At least I can say that and left it all on the track.”
Dillon raced to his third career win on the top circuit and first since the Daytona 500 to the start the 2018 season. It was Dillon and Reddick in the front on the final three restarts, the first after an incident with 29 laps to go that shuffled the fast Ford of Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney to a lap back.
“Not bad for a silver spoon kid, huh?” Dillon, a grandson of Childress, joked in his TV interview immediately after the race. “Tyler Reddick, he raced me clean. One-two for RCR. This has been coming. We’ve had good cars all year. I’ve got my baby Ace back home, my wife. I’m just so happy.”