Over the past few years, Austin Dillon winning NASCAR Cup Series races has seriously become one of the most entertaining experiences when it comes to observing the post-race fan reactions.
You get to watch the fanbase, as a whole, absolutely lose their minds for a plethora of reasons. First and foremost, there's the silver spoon narrative. The fact that his grandfather is Richard Childress means he can't possibly have any talent whatsoever, so his wins, specifically the two crown jewels, obviously shouldn't count.
Then there's how his wins came about. The first four wins of his career were either fuel mileage/strategy wins or superspeedway wins. Clearly they shouldn't count, because that's obviously how this works.
Then last year, he dominated at Richmond Raceway until a late caution led to a restart. After a poor restart, he decided to completely wreck Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin to win anyway.
Now we've reached the elephant in the room: the playoffs.
Last year, because of the sheer ridiculousness of the move, NASCAR did not allow Dillon's win to count toward playoff eligibility (even though he clearly would have won without the late yellow with a lap and a half to go).
Fair enough; Logano's "chicken s---" move comment was pretty accurate, and obviously NASCAR needed to set a precedent, and a good one at that. While the "win and in" playoff format literally rewards that kind of nonsense by nature, NASCAR needed to drive home the point that it actually doesn't.
Given Richard Childress' history of endorsing his drivers absolutely destroying others' machinery, it wasn't surprising to see him fight it, but it didn't matter anyway.
But perhaps the most entertaining part of literally every Dillon win so far is the fact that it leads to the regurgitation of the laziest NASCAR fanbase party line in the history of the sport: the win-and-in playoffs need to go.
I'm not going to sit here and argue that Dillon has not had an abysmal season this year. He was 28th in points entering Richmond without a single finish higher than seventh (and even after the win, he's still only 25th). He had just three top 15 finishes over the 13 most recent races, with nothing higher than 10th during that stretch.
Regardless of what happens at Daytona International Speedway to wrap up the regular season next weekend, there are slated to be probably a dozen other drivers who miss the playoffs despite having had unequivocally better seasons than he's had, from top to bottom.
But winning still matters. Dillon did that. And the others didn't.
NASCAR fans can't stand that. And above all, they can't stand it when it's Dillon.
"This playoff format has to go. NASCAR isn't supposed to be about winning. It's supposed to be about riding around 14th every week."
Anyway...
Here's the thing, though. Even aside from the "everybody plays by the same rules" playoff defense, which is completely accurate, Dillon and the No. 3 team, for whatever its worth, are by far and away the most clutch driver-team combo when it comes to winning their way into the playoffs from below the cut line. It's not even close.
If you go back to the introduction of the modern playoff format in 2014, Dillon has now won a race, despite being outside the top 16 in points, six times. Even excluding last year, that's five playoff tickets punched from outside the top 16. Nobody else has done it more than twice.
Dillon, who hasn't gotten into the playoffs on points since 2016, winning his way into the playoffs (again) isn't the "gotcha" moment NASCAR fans think it is.
This is exactly what NASCAR wants, and just like there is something to be said for Logano and the No. 22 teamknowing how to completely use the playoff format to their advantage when it comes time to win championships, there is also something to be said for Dillon and his team knowing how to consistently make it happen in the regular season to give themselves a shot come postseason time.
That said, the entertainment of the post-race complaints following a Dillon win is second to none, especially when you sit back and realize that NASCAR is going to change absolutely nothing as a result of it.
The Coke Zero Sugar 400 is scheduled to end the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series regular season this Saturday, August 23 at Daytona International Speedway, with live coverage slated to begin at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC. Start a free trial of FuboTV and don't miss the final race before this year's playoffs!