Photo by Adam Cheek
Richmond Raceway may be down to one NASCAR weekend a year, but the track delivered action in spades Aug. 15-16 in front of a sold-out crowd.
Austin Dillon repeated as winner of the Cook Out 400, although with decidedly less controversy than last year. During that outing, a late-race restart with two laps to go led Dillon to put the bumper to and spin leader Joey Logano before also making contact with Denny Hamlin. Dillon won the 2024 race, but his on-track actions cost him the playoff spot normally guaranteed with race victories.
Like last year, Dillon and the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing team came into Richmond well outside the playoffs on points as the cutoff drew near, this time with only one race after Richmond before they’d be eliminated from championship contention. Dillon is a grandson of Richard Childress, who is best known as Dale Earnhardt’s car owner.
A similar outcome unfolded, with one important omission. Dillon once again had the best car and a multisecond lead late in the race, but no caution flew. Instead, the Bass Pro Shops-sponsored Chevrolet cruised to the checkered flag without controversy, despite its driver racing with a broken rib.
“This was the worst track for me when I started racing,” Dillon said in his post-race press conference. However, he added, experience in the Xfinity Series helped him improve. “I feel like I run a different line than everybody. Location-wise, on the track, I’m very adamant about where I put my car on the long run. I don’t know if that’s the patience that helps the tires live longer, but I’m usually running in my own place down there, kind of catfishing around the bottom.”
It took several years for Dillon to find solid results in Richmond, but he has now finished in the top 10 in eight of his last 13 starts at the track, and a third of his six Cup victories have come at this venue. Dillon’s 107 laps led were also the most for an RCR car since Earnhardt led the same en route to his 1998 Daytona 500 triumph.
Any trouble during the race happened in Dillon’s rearview mirror or far enough in front of the No. 3 for him to check up and avoid it. Lap 199 featured an 11-car wreck, the largest crash at Richmond since 13 were caught in an early-race incident at the fall 2011 event.
Tyler Reddick, driving for Hamlin and Michael Jordan’s team 23XI Racing, dominated early. The No. 45 led 41 laps and won the first stage, but finished 34th. Contact from Daniel Suarez sent Ty Gibbs into Reddick, who spun into the wall at the exit of Turn 4.
Reddick’s teammate Bubba Wallace inherited apparent control of the race, leading 123 laps and winning stage two, but bad luck struck the Toyota stable again when Wallace’s crew didn’t get a wheel on securely in the pits. The No. 23 peeled out of the stall but was quickly sans wheel, which derailed Wallace’s night; he finished 28th.
Alex Bowman, the 2021 spring Richmond winner, finished second. Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano and Austin Cindric, all Team Penske Ford drivers, rounded out the top five.
Chesterfield native Hamlin finished 10th after entering as one of the track’s defending winners — he won the currently defunct spring race in 2024. Hamlin has five wins at Richmond Raceway. “For me, personally, it’s important because it’s my hometown track, so you’ve got to take advantage,” Hamlin said in a press conference on Friday. “Only have one shot.”
The highly competitive race had 6,475 green-flag passes, a new record for the track in the era of the Next Gen car, the vehicle currently used in the NASCAR Cup Series. It broke the previous mark for Richmond by nearly 2,400.
Craftsman Truck Series Season Finale
Corey Heim won the Craftsman Truck Series’ Eero 250 on Friday night, his seventh win of the season across 18 races. Heim is also the primary driver for Hamlin and Jordan’s third, part-time car, the No. 67, and said his success in the Truck Series event helped him gain experience for the Cup Series race the following evening.
“I think, specifically for this track, it’s such a strange, different track,” Heim told Richmond magazine in his post-race press conference. “We have basically no grip out there. It’s very honed in on your technique and the way you approach it.”
The regular-season finale saw defending winner Ty Majeski as a dot in the windshields of his competitors approaching lap 200 of 250. The No. 98 ThorSport Racing Ford had led 143 laps, but as in the 2023 race that Majeski also dominated, things went south for him. ThorSport teammate Matt Crafton hit an oil patch in Turns 3 and 4 and lost control, sliding up into Majeski and damaging both trucks. Majeski wasn’t badly wounded and his crew fixed things up on pit road, but he couldn’t get back to Heim, who cruised to the checkered flag.
“This place just rewards discipline,” Majeski said after the race. “I feel like, as a short-track racer, with the super late-model races that I have under my belt, this place just rewards that type of racing. We don’t go to a lot of places on the truck schedule that are like this — that reward consistency. We have great race trucks.”
The seven-race Truck Series playoff begins on Labor Day weekend at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina. Majeski and Heim are two of the 10-driver field, which also includes Rajah Caruth, Layne Riggs and Grant Enfinger.
Sold-out Grandstands
The 2025 Cook Out 400 was Richmond’s first sellout since 2008. Fans packed the stands, did the wave and stood at attention to cheer their favorite drivers when the cars came to the green flag or approached the restart zone.
Plenty of fans tailgated outside, too. Chesterfield’s Tina and Tracy McKinney have been attending races at the iconic D-oval track for over 20 years, and they don’t plan to stop anytime soon. “Everything is going to be changing before too long,” Tina said. “There are going to be nothing but new drivers and we’re not going to know who they are, but we still have fun and enjoy it. My boys enjoy coming as well.”
The couple had a full tent setup close to the media parking lot. “It’s just a big party,” Tracy said.
Track President Lori Collier Waran stressed the importance of the fans to the race weekend, especially after Richmond lost a date following the 2024 season, and said they have been crucial for feedback.
“I love the fans the most, and I’ve learned the most from them. … They’ve shared some of the things that we could do better, and they've shared some things they love, so we know what to keep,” Waran told Richmond magazine on Friday. “It’s been nice to get to know so many of them who come back year after year on a personal level.”
Although everyone shared in the disappointment that came with the one-date plan for 2025, Waran and her team were making the most of the weekend. “I think what it enables us to do is just really make this week super special and encourage everyone to come out,” Waran said. “We really were able to focus on making this incredible for all the fans. … We used to have fans from about 40 different states and two countries. This time, we have 49 states and nine countries. It’s incredible.”
Madison Whitbeck, who was crowned Miss Virginia 2025 and attends Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, was on hand both days. Whitbeck sang the national anthem before the Truck Series race on Friday. “It’s been so much fun,” she said Saturday. “The energy at this NASCAR race is electric. … I’m super excited.”
During race weekends, fans can visit various activations and merchandise haulers out in the midway, camp for days outside the track, or simply attend one or both races. There are opportunities in the infield for attendees to walk the garages, see crews at work and potentially even run into their favorite driver.
Seeing the campers move in on Tuesday is one of Waran’s favorite parts of the weekend. “A lot of them have had their camping spots for 20, 30, 40 years, or it’s passed down from generation to generation,” she said, “so I’ve gotten to know a lot of those people, and just seeing it felt like old friends and a reunion of sorts.”
