Not to be overlooked in the dramatic ending to Sunday’s race at Richmond (Va.) Raceway is the new championship picture with three races remaining to settle the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoff picture.

Much of the attention post-race was centered around the controversial race finish. And Richmond winner, Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon’s version of a “walk-off home run” has a major effect on the championship outlook. Ranked 32nd in the standings – more than 200 points out of eligibility – before the race, Dillon’s overtime victory makes him the 13th driver to earn a shot at the title run.

The race proved impactful in other ways as well.

Only six points now separate the top three positions atop the regular season championship standings. Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson only guards a five-point edge on 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick, whose third place finish at Richmond moved him into second place in the regular season title run – the highest ranking for him this year.

Reddick holds only a single-point up on Hendrick’s Chase Elliott and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin cut his fourth place deficit to only 21 points thanks to his runner-up finish at Richmond.

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Martin Truex Jr. – who led the championship standings earlier in the year – is still racing for his first victory of 2024 but his strong work makes him the first driver championship eligible based on points. He had a more than 100-point edge on the 16th place cutoff going into Richmond, but an engine failure on his No. 19 JGR Toyota resulting in a last place (37th) finish has cut that advantage to 75 points.

Truex’s JRG teammate Ty Gibbs also had a lackluster Richmond night – finishing 22nd. He is ranked 15th in the driver standings, but that Saturday showing meant he also lost ground in his points advantage and now only holds an 18-point cushion in the Playoff standings.

The upside of the night was 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace, who after being more than 100-points below that 16th place Playoff cutoff line only a month ago, has now moved into the 16th and final Playoff transfer position with a strong fourth place run at Richmond.

“We knew we had to work coming in here, obviously being below [the cut-off line] and our team did just that,” Wallace said. “We fought hard. We did not have the best day on pit road, not from a lack of effort. I appreciate them getting better all night. They showed up when it mattered on the last stop – kept us in it. Just execution.”

Wallace’s clutch night and Dillon’s win bumped Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing’s Chris Buescher and Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain out of the top-16. They both now trail Wallace for that final championship spot by a mere three-points.

“Congrats to Austin [Dillon], RCR and Chevrolet,” said Chastain, who finished fifth at Richmond. “That is big for our group and will make tomorrow’s meeting better that a Chevy won. I’m happy for that and everything else will work itself out. It’s simple math – if we just keep stacking together finishes and just pace like this, we will be just fine.”

This week the series moves to Michigan International Speedway for Sunday’s Firekeepers Casino 400 (2:30 p.m. ET on USA Network, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Buescher is the defending winner – his only top-five finish in 13 starts at the fast two-miler. Chastain earned his only top-10 finish (seventh) in six Michigan starts last summer. And Wallace has two top-10 efforts in 10 starts – winning pole position and finishing runner-up in the 2022 race.

“I’m excited to go back and try to defend that one,” Buescher says of last summer’s Michigan win. “We’ve made some big gains in the Ford camp in the last several months and I’m excited to see how that can play out at another big racetrack where we know we were able to do well last year.’’

— NASCAR Wire Service —