Dillon gets third career Cup win

FORT WORTH, Texas — Austin Dillon stayed in front after a restart with two laps to go and beat rookie Tyler Reddick to the checkered flag at Texas, giving Richard Childress Racing a 1-2 NASCAR Cup finish in the O’reilly Auto Parts 500 and quite a show for the estimated 20,000 spectators spread out in the stands on a scorching Sunday.

Dillon raced to his third career win and first since Daytona at the start of the 2018 season. He stayed in front on three late restarts, the first after an incident with 29 laps left that shuffled the fast car of Ryan Blaney to a lap back.

“Not bad for a silver spoon kid, huh?” said Dillon, the grandson of Childress. “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.”

On the final restart, Dillon got a good jump and raced to the checkered flag ahead of his rookie teammate and some veteran drivers.

Joey Logano finished third, with Las Vegas native Kyle Busch coming in fourth a day after he finished ahead of the field in two races — having an Xfinity Series victory taken away after his car failed a postrace inspection before winning the Truck Series race at night. Series points leader Kevin Harvick was fifth.

Kyle Busch’s brother, Kurt, placed eighth.

There were an estimated 20,000 spectators at the track, where it reached 97 degrees late in the first summertime Cup race at Texas — it was supposed to be a spring race nearly four months ago, before the coronavirus pandemic postponed and then shuffled NASCAR’S schedule. Inside the cars, it was 130-140 degrees.

After leading six times for 150 laps, both highs for the race, Blaney finished seventh.