Austin Dillon Set for First Career Chase Run

Austin Dillon raced his way into the Chase for the Sprint Cup on Saturday night at Richmond International Raceway.

Dillon locked himself into the Chase with a 13th-place finish on Saturday.  Dillon said he had a stronger car than his finish showed.

Austin Dillon speaks to his crew earlier this season at
Kentucky. Brian Lawdermilk (Getty Images)

"Our goal was to race the 1 [of Jamie McMurray] all night, that's who we needed to race," Dillon said.  "Stayed on his strategy, and finished where we needed to.  I think if we would have played it like a regular race, we'd have had a good shot at a top 10 or top eight."

Dillon, in his third season in the Sprint Cup Series, is having his best season at NASCAR's top level.  He already has more top 5's (4) and top 10's (10) this year with 10 races remaining than he has had in his first two years combined.

With Dillon still winless in his Sprint Cup Series career, crew chief Slugger Labbe said after the race that next weekend's race at Chicagoland is the most important.

"First part of our goal is done," Labbe said on the radio following the checkered flag.  "Focus on Chicago; that's the one we're going to win.  That's the one that matters."

Dillon said he was happy to have a strong sponsor and team behind him heading into his first championship run.

"Proud of this Dow team," Dillon said.  "Dow has stuck by me for three years now.  They've made this such an easy process for me, having a sponsor like them and a partner."

Dillon is now in position to do something no driver has ever done in history: win a Championship in all three of NASCAR's touring series.  Dillon won the 2011 Camping World Truck Series Championship and the 2013 Xfinity Series Championship, and now has the chance to win his first Sprint Cup Series Championship. 

Dillon said the last few weeks have been stressful as a winless driver heading towards the Chase cutoff.

"I'm going to have fun, I've been stressed out for the last three weeks.  Not going to lie, I've lost some sleep."

In post-race interviews, Dillon sounded confident he could contend for a victory next weekend.

"Definitely don't want to be in that situation next year; I want to have a win.  But hopefully our first win comes next week at Chicago."

"Time to have some fun in the Chase."

Chris Graythen (Getty Images)

Hamlin Wins, Chase Field is Set at Richmond

Originally written for CLNS Radio.

Denny Hamlin won the Federated Auto Parts 400 from Richmond International Speedway on Saturday night.

Hamlin won from the pole and led 189 laps.  Hamlin said his team gave him a fast car for the weekend.  

Getty Images

“Our cars are really running well,” Hamlin said.  “Finally everything just kind of worked well for us all day.  Really got it dialed in there for the last half of the race.”  

The race was the final race before NASCAR’s Chase for the Sprint Cup.  The playoff field was set following the checkered flag, with Chase Elliott, Austin Dillon and Jamie McMurray making it in on points, along with the other 13 winners from this season.

Hamlin said this win will give his team the momentum they need heading into the final 10 weeks of the season.

“We’ve got everything going well for us.  Proud of this whole team; everything’s been great.  Hopefully we’ll go on another Chase run.”

The Chase kicks off next weekend at Chicagoland.  For Chris Buescher, Kyle Larson, Elliott and Dillon, it will be their first trip to NASCAR’s playoff.

Elliott said his team is looking forward to fighting for a championship all the way to the finale at Homestead.

“We’re excited about these next 10,” Elliott said.  “I think we have to go in with the mentality that we give ourselves a chance at Homestead; if not, we should have let the next one in.”

Unofficial results:

1. Denny Hamlin

2. Kyle Larson

3. Martin Truex Jr.

4. Brad Keselowski

5. Kevin Harvick

6. Kasey Kahne

7. Jamie McMurray

8. Kurt Busch

9. Kyle Busch

10. Joey Logano

11. Jimmie Johnson

12. Michael McDowell

13. Austin Dillon

14. Trevor Bayne

15. Danica Patrick

16. Jeff Gordon

17. Aric Almirola

18. Chase Elliott

19. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

20. AJ Allmendinger

21. Casey Mears

22. Clint Bowyer

23. Greg Biffle

24. Chris Buescher

25. Dylan Lupton

26. Reed Sorenson

27. Jeffrey Earnhardt

28. Ryan Newman

29. Regan Smith

30. Josh Wise

31. Michael Annett

32. Carl Edwards

33. Tony Stewart

34. David Ragan

35. Brian Scott

36. Landon Cassill

37. Matt DiBenedetto

38. Matt Kenseth

39. Ryan Blaney

40. Paul Menard

Getty Images

Weekly Pull List: 9/7/2016

All the comics available this week can be found on ComicList, and any comic book news is on CBR.

Image
The Walking Dead #158

Marvel
Daredevil #11
Deadpool and the Mercs for Money #3
Invincible Iron Man #13
Marvel Tsum Tsum #2
Moon Knight #6
Silk #12
Spidey #10
Star Wars: Poe Dameron #6
Uncanny X-Men #12

Truex Wins Southern 500 from Darlington

Originally written for CLNS Radio.

Martin Truex Jr. won the Bojangles’ Southern 500 from Darlington Raceway on Sunday night.

Truex took the lead late in the race, and had to hold off a hard-charging Kevin Harvick over the closing laps for one of the biggest victories of his career.

“I’ve been wanting to win this thing for a long time,” Truex said.  “Couldn’t be happier to win at Darlington in the Southern 500.”

Brian Lawdermilk (Getty Images)

Truex said the victory was a testament to his team’s performance on pit road after they got him off pit road first during the final pit stop.

“The pit crew was flawless tonight; they won us the race,” Truex said.  “Just so proud to get to victory lane with this group.”

Harvick had a very different outlook on his pit crew following his runner-up finish.  Harvick had the fastest car of the night, leading 214 of 367 laps.  A few slow pit stops late in the race kept Harvick out of victory lane.

“You get in a position to win races and they continually step on their toes and they don’t make it happen,” Harvick said.  “I’m really proud of the car that we brought tonight…but you can only make so many excuses for pit road.”

“You get in a position where you bring a dominant car, and the guys in the shop and the guys in the garage are doing a great job, and the guys on pit road are doing a terrible job.”

The Chase field will be set next weekend at Richmond, the final race before NASCAR’s 10-race playoff.  Chase Elliott, Austin Dillon and Jamie McMurray currently hold the three final Chase spots, with Ryan Newman only seven points behind McMurray for 16th in points.

Unofficial results:

1. Martin Truex Jr.

2. Kevin Harvick

3. Kyle Larson

4. Denny Hamlin

5. Joey Logano

6. Matt Kenseth

7. Kasey Kahne

8. Ryan Newman

9. Brad Keselowski

10. Chase Elliott

11. Kyle Busch

12. Austin Dillon

13. Ryan Blaney

14. Jeff Gordon

15. Jamie McMurray

16. Paul Menard

17. Chris Buescher

18. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

19. Carl Edwards

20. Regan Smith

21. David Ragan

22. Clint Bowyer

23. AJ Allmendinger

24. Danica Patrick

25. Casey Mears

26. Matt DiBenedetto

27. Michael McDowell

28. Michael Annett

29. Josh Wise

30. Landon Cassill

31. Reed Sorenson

32. Aric Almirola

33. Jimmie Johnson

34. Kurt Busch

35. Tony Stewart

36. Greg Biffle

37. Cole Whitt

38. Jeffrey Earnhardt

39. Brian Scott

40. Trevor Bayne

Josh Hedges (Getty Images)

Weekly Pull List: 8/31/2016

All the comics available this week can be found on ComicList, and any comic book news can be found on CBR.

BOOM! Studios
Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers #6

Image
Saga #37

Marvel
Amazing Spider-Man #17
Astonishing Ant-Man #11
Carnage #11
Civil War II: Choosing Sides #5
Deadpool V Gambit #4
Guardians of the Galaxy #11
Howard the Duck #10
Nova #10
Rocket Raccoon and Groot #8
Spider-Gwen #11
Spider-Man #7
Spider-Man 2099 #14
Star Wars: Han Solo #3