This past weekend marked the first time in many, many years that the NASCAR Cup Series would make its only trip to the Richmond Raceway. Here are the winners and losers from the 2025 Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway!
Winners
Austin Dillon
Obviously, Austin Dillon would break a 37-race winless streak and score redemption for his lost 2024 Playoff spot from 2024! Austin is now locked into the Playoffs and will get his 5th Playoff shot.
William Byron
Despite receiving significant damage during “The Big One” early on in the race, William Byron managed to muscle his Liberty University Chevrolet to a top-15 finish, far ahead of direct competitor and teammate Chase Elliott, locking himself as the Regular Season Champion.
Ryan Blaney
Blaney had previously never scored a top-5 finish at Richmond Raceway. But a 3rd place finish would eliminate Richmond as one of the few tracks the 2023 Champion has yet to score that statistic. Blaney would lead 39 laps and only be passed for second late in the final run.
Team Penske
With all three of the Team Penske cars finishing nose to tail from 3rd to 5th, this would mark the best overall finish for the team all season long. With Blaney and Cindric leading laps and Logano racing from dead last to his 4th place finish, the trio would score a total of 120 points with one hell of a strong showing just before the Playoffs begin.
Losers
Bubba Wallace
Bubba would dominate the race early on. He would score the most Stage Points overall and lead the most laps with 123. A powerful showing of momentum before the Playoffs would be smacked back down by a mistake on pit road with the loss of the left rear tire. Bubba’s potential race win would be nothing more than a 28th-place finish.
Chase Elliott
Byron’s only true contender for the Regular Season title and the 15 Playoff Points that come with it, Elliott would be taken out early, just before the halfway point in the Big One. He would leave Richmond with only a single point with his first DNF of the season.
RFK
With two golden opportunities left for an RFK driver to win their way into the 2025 Playoffs, Pole Sitter Ryan Preece would lead 60 laps before settling for a 35th-place finish. The best hope for RFK, Chris Buescher, would receive damage during the Big One, resulting in a 30th-place finish. Worst of all, Dillon becoming the 14th different winner would knock Chris entirely out of contention to point his way in. Either Brad, Chris, or Ryan will have to win next weekend; otherwise, RFK Racing will not have a car in the Playoffs for the first time since the rebrand in 2023.
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