Austin Dillon Credits Richard Childress’ Tough Love for RCR’s Recent Success

After a flurry of underwhelming results, including 14 top 20s and seven top 10s across 21 starts, Kyle Busch’s 11th-place finish at Dover triggered a raw moment. Even his teammate, Austin Dillon, finished 15th. Over the team radio, Richard Childress bluntly declared, “Gotta get some race cars. We are in trouble. Period.” Fast forward to after Darlington, Dillon finds himself in the playoffs, sitting in 14th place. The push that got them there, you may ask? Well, the No. 3 reveals just that.

If there is one way to sum up Richard Childress Racing’s 2025 journey, it is performance inconsistencies and mounting challenges. After Dover’s NASCAR Cup Series race, Richard Childress showed notable frustration, which was later evidenced by Dillon after winning at Richmond Raceway: “That was a rare moment… it felt good for me because he was back in the driver’s seat and you want that from your owner.” But it is not like the team was not prompting internal organizational shifts. During late November last year, new executives like Richard Boswell, Johnny Klausmeier, and Mike Verlander were brought in to help address RCR’s long-standing performance issues. And now Austin Dillon is grateful for those moments.

Speaking pre-race in a media availability ahead of Gateway, Dillon didn’t mince words: “It’s funny. I think we come out swinging, and we kind of take a dip, and then we come back. So I think RC has to yell at us at the right time, I guess, and then we get going again. I don’t know why that is. I’d really love to figure that out, solve for it. But you know, at least we’re finding speed at the right time, like you talked about, because I think that’s key in this sport now and in every sport.”

And it is true, Austin Dillon delivered a standout victory at Richmond Raceway, leading 107 laps and repeating his win from the previous year. This made him the first-ever driver to do so after Denny Hamlin’s feat in 2009 and 2010. On the other hand, despite the ongoing winless streak, Kyle Busch also had brief flashes of powerful form early in 2025. He notched impressive results, including a seventh-place finish at Atlanta, a runner-up performance at COTA, and a solid eighth place at Phoenix.

Now, Dillon sees RCR in a whole new light: “Momentum is big, and um, so I’m proud of our organization for the speed that we have brought the last couple weeks, and you see Kyle and AJ run well last week shows us that we were capable of doing that. You know, we kind of got burned last week on that last caution. I mean, we were on pit road when the yellow fell, and we were the wave around. We had just started coming forward pretty good. We were up to 18th. I think we finished the race 14th if that cycle goes through.”

And this momentum was reflected at Darlington last Sunday. In the high-pressure opening rate of the playoffs, Busch again showed resilience. He finished eighth, holding his own in the competitive Cook Out Southern 500. However, it was a mixed bag result for RCR. Austin Dillon faced a challenging start in Darlington when he finished 23rd. This result left him eight points behind the elimination line, ranked 14th in the standings, just below Joey Logano.

While Kyle Busch sounded off on his decline with RCR, the 35-year-old remains optimistic, emphasizing the importance of the upcoming race. He also noted that executing a strong performance there could significantly improve his position in the playoff standings. With the NASCAR Cup garage now headed to Gateway, Dillon may just have revealed his playoff strategy.

Austin Dillon sums up RCR’s playoff strategy in one word at WWT Raceway

Without giving too much away, Austin Dillon knows just how much is on the line for the No. 3 team at Sunday’s Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway. He has recently thrived on shorter, flatter tracks. His dominance was also evident in 10th and 12th-place finishes at Iowa Speedway and Phoenix Raceway. The No. 3 car has averaged 35.7 points on comparable tracks like Gateway in 2025, ranking third in the series behind only William Byron at 41.3 and Ryan Blaney at 39, according to Racing Insights.

Reflecting on his success on flat tracks. On Saturday, before practice, Austin said, “I feel like we should be above the cutline because of all the stuff that went down last week, and we didn’t. “Execution” was the main word that I used at [Cup Series Playoff] Media Day. We executed partly, half of it. Getting through that race, we‘re only eight away from the cutline, so it‘s not insurmountable. I feel really good about these two races.” 

Sitting eight points below the elimination line, the pressure is on, but Dillon isn’t sweating it. RCR’s recent history at Gateway calls for some optimism. The No. 3 car finished sixth in 2024, and it’s the track where Kyle Busch notched his most recent Cup Series victory, leading 121 laps from the pole, 83 races ago.

Dillon added, “You have to do a good job with strategy and different things. I think the past history of Kyle running really well here and winning the race. Last year, we had a fast car and were able to take advantage of that and finish sixth and score stage points. Some stage points would be good and a top 10, and I feel like we’re going into Bristol just above the cutline and then we‘ve got to go do the same thing there.”

Dillon had a rough start in qualifying, lagging over three-tenths of a second behind AJ Allmendinger. He bounced back, though, and will start 15th for Sunday’s showdown. And all eyes will be on RCR to see the driver make improvements to advance in the rounds ahead.