DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Austin Dillon's wife was doing a rain dance during a lengthy weather delay in hopes of getting the skies to open up again and wash out the rest of the race.
"I got upset," Dillon said. "I said, 'Don't be doing that.'"
There was no jinxing this one.
Dillon avoided a massive wreck in the rain to take the lead before a red flag, then returned more than three hours later to finish off an improbable victory at Daytona International Speedway and snag a playoff spot in the NASCAR Cup Series regular-season finale Sunday.
He passed Team Penske's Austin Cindric with three laps to go, and the Richard Childress Racing No. 3 Chevrolet was unchallenged down the stretch. It was an aggressive move that capped a drama-filled race and set off a wild celebration for a team that's usually a factor at Daytona.
"It's crazy," said Dillon, who ended a 78-race winless streak with the fourth victory of his Cup Series career. "You just never give up and have faith. We had some tough finishes this year, like Charlotte. I beat myself up over that. I made a good move and just didn't finish it off. Today we finished it off."
Martin Truex Jr. was the biggest loser. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver, regularly one of the final four championship contenders at season's end, looked like he would secure the final postseason berth when rain halted the race with 21 laps remaining. Instead, he faded after the restart and allowed Penske's Ryan Blaney to make up ground in a points scramble.
Blaney finished seven spots behind Truex in the race but three points ahead in the standings.
"You just try to stay optimistic," Blaney said. "Definitely a roller-coaster of emotions that ended on a high note."
For Truex, the frustration wasn't just about Sunday.
"We gave away plenty of points throughout the season," the 2017 Cup Series champion said. "It is what it is."
Dillon's victory was as stunning as Blaney's comeback. Running 16th at the time of the crash, he turned onto the apron to avoid the 15-car melee between the first two turns that was caused by a summer shower everyone saw coming. Cars started sliding sideways heading into the high-banked turn, a result of slick tires losing grip on wet asphalt.
Daniel Suarez and Denny Hamlin were running first and second when the pack drove into the rain with 23 laps remaining.
"Just throw the caution before the rain came," Hamlin said, adding that "better officiating" is needed. "We had rain down the front, so about 10 seconds before we got into turn one, it was raining. I'm sure the fans felt it, and then they watched us all pile in there."
For a second, it looked like 2014 series champion Kevin Harvick was going to make it through the mess and grab the lead as the caution flag flew. But then Ty Dillon — Austin's younger brother — went spinning, sideswiped Harvick and knocked him into the wreckage.
That allowed the older Dillon, who started the day 19th in points, to essentially steal a playoff spot. It also created a controversial finish with questions about whether NASCAR should have halted the race earlier, but it provided the kind of Game 7 moment the series wanted when it moved the regular-season finale to unpredictable Daytona in 2020.
NASCAR seemed intent on fixing its noncall by waiting for a window of sunshine.
"It's not something you can predict when it's going to start raining," said Scott Miller, NASCAR's senior vice president of competition. "Just a super bad situation for everybody."
Inclement weather was a factor all weekend. Thunderstorms delayed the Xfinity Series race Friday night and pushed the Cup Series race from Saturday night to Sunday morning, when more rain was in the forecast.
Dark clouds had surrounded the track for at least half an hour before several drivers reported seeing raindrops on the previous lap, but it wasn't enough for NASCAR to stop the race — until it was obvious and too late.
Only 18 cars stayed on track once the green flag dropped again, and only 10 finished on the lead lap. Tyler Reddick finished second to give Richard Childress Racing the top two spots, followed by Cindric, Kaulig Racing's Landon Cassill and Beard Motorsports' Noah Gragson.
The other 14 drivers in the 10-race playoffs were known before the regular-season finale, having clinched their spots by virtue of at least one win this year: Christopher Bell, Alex Bowman, Chase Briscoe, William Byron, Kyle Busch, Ross Chastain, Cindric, Chase Elliott, Hamlin, Harvick, Kyle Larson, Joey Logano, Reddick and Suarez.
The first round of the playoffs begins next Sunday at South Carolina's Darlington Raceway, where Joey Logano won in May.
F1: Verstappen rallies
SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium — Formula One returned from its summer break with a familiar story.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen, the reigning series champion, quickly carved his way through the field from a starting position of 14th to win the Belgian Grand Prix and widen his lead in this year's title race.
In the last race before the break, Verstappen started 10th before rallying to win the Hungarian Grand Prix on July 31. He produced another imperious drive Sunday.
"It's been a weekend I couldn't have imagined before," Verstappen said. "But I think we want more of them, and we'll keep working hard."
The 24-year-old Verstappen — the youngest driver to win a race when he was 18 — said it was probably the most complete drive of his career.
His lead in the standings grew to 93 points, but now it's over teammate Sergio Perez after Charles Leclerc dropped to third in another poor Ferrari showing.
Verstappen was leading the race by the 12th lap, and he earned a bonus point for fastest lap. His third straight win was his ninth this season and the 29th of his career.
Perez finished second. Ferrari's Carlos Sainz Jr. started on the pole but finished a disappointing third. Leclerc started 15th and finished fifth behind the Mercedes of George Russell, but Leclerc dropped to sixth after he was handed a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane.
That pushed Alpine driver Fernando Alonso into fifth, and Leclerc is now 98 points behind Verstappen in the standings.
The series returns to the track next Sunday for the Dutch GP, Verstappen's home race.