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Austin Dillon Finishes Third at Martinsville

(Photo: Ryan Daley | The Podium Finish)

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Austin Dillon recorded his third consecutive top 10 finish on Saturday with a third-place finish in Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400. It was his second top-five finish of the year and his best career finish at Martinsville Speedway in the Cup Series.

“I’m a little bummed,” Dillon said. “I like to pride myself in when we get in those situations being clutch, and that was anything but that on that last restart.”

Dillon, who has admittedly struggled to qualify this season, started Saturday’s race from 23rd. He wheeled his No. 3 Get Bioethanol Chevrolet to 12th place at the end of Stage 1 and up to sixth at the end of Stage 2. Both stages remained caution free, and Dillon’s car performed well on long runs.

After a caution on Lap 313 for debris, Dillon lined up second on the restart behind William Byron, the eventual race winner. Byron took the lead with laps winding down, but Dillon’s team believed he could catch Byron on a long run. Byron began to pull away, but with seven laps to go, a caution came out for Todd Gilliland, setting up a green-white-checkered finish.

Dillon took the inside lane on the choose rule, lining up directly behind Byron on the restart. Byron got a good jump and Dillon spun his tires, leaving Byron and Joey Logano to duel it out for the win.

“I spun the tires pretty good through the gears,” Dillon said. “Once I got back in line there, I had some grip, and I feel like we had good forward drive all night long and I just felt like if we got to the gears we were going to have a shot at him.”

Dillon earned 39 points in the race and moved to 15th in driver’s points and 16th in playoff standings. Next on the schedule is Bristol Dirt, where Dillon finished 21st last year.

“We’ve been working our tails off,” Dillon said. “I’m not going to say we haven’t because we’ve been in a simulator. We’ve been working really hard to make this car as good as possible. We want to get RCR a win, and that’s what we’re here racing for. I want to shout out to my wife and Ace back at home and thank the good Lord for bringing us a good run. That was a lot of fun.”

 

Nathan Solomon serves as the managing editor of The Podium Finish. He has been part of the team since 2021 and is accredited by the National Motorsports Press Association. Solomon is a senior in the Jandoli School of Communication at St. Bonaventure University. Contact him at NSolly02@Yahoo.com.

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