NASCAR CUP SERIES: BASS PRO SHOPS NIGHT RACE

September 13, 2025

Austin Dillon

Pit Lane Interview

Q. You told me before the race that you felt like your car was pretty good and you could contend. Lap 29 the tires started coming apart and you had to shift mentality quick. How long did it take you to process what was happening there?

AUSTIN DILLON: Well, we didn't process it fast enough. I just thought we had a flat tire and I was losing the right front. I didn't know we were cording tires that fast. I just thought we were tight and then I was like, well, fired off fine and it was cording just like they did that one race a year ago so or.

It's unfortunate. I know NASCAR doesn't want that to be the race for the playoffs because you want to be able to go out and race it out, and our car didn't have any problems, no tire wear in practice. I'm guessing the temperature change is the biggest thing, and we just weren't able to race hard.

We wanted to be able to race hard and it came in to just a putting-around-trying-to-make-tires-live kind of race and our car wasn't good for that.

And it's unfortunate for Bass Pro Shops Winchester. Just wanted a shot to race and didn't feel like we really had that tonight.

Q. You guys went into damage control a little bit there, were able to get some wave-arounds, and it was looking okay for a minute. How hard is it to know that you weren't maybe able to race the way you wanted to and be knocked out that way?

AUSTIN DILLON: The guys were trying so hard to get us back on the lead lap trying to get things to fall right, but truthfully our car, we couldn't go as long as we needed to, as fast as we needed to.

There was opportunities there to be better, but I went hard one run and 21 laps is all I got before I was corded. We were shot really fast. I had to really manage tires and try and keep it underneath me and hope things would have played out.

Truthfully they played out good as we could have -- if we had run 15th tonight we'd probably transfer, but things hit us fast there at the beginning being the first car to really go through it.