It’s not often that a driver leaves a race track proud of an 18th-place finish, but that was clearly the case with Austin Dillon after last Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Playoff race near St. Louis.

In fact, finishing 18th was a triumph for the driver of the flagship Bass Pro Shops No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, and it left him within striking distance of the Round of 12 entering Saturday’s Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET on USA, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Dillon is the first driver below the current elimination for the Round of 12, with the Playoff field set to be cut from 16 drivers to 12 on Saturday night. Dillon trails 12th-place Austin Cindric by 11 points and 11th-place Ross Chastain by 19 points—and it took a concerted effort by his team at Gateway to stay that close.

“We were terrible (on Sunday),” Dillon said of the performance of his car at the track last weekend. “Our whole organization just missed it this weekend, but we executed great. I'm proud of the effort this No. 3 Chevrolet team gave for what we had for a race car. The guys did all we could to strategize, and running long worked.

“At the end of the race when we finished 18th, that was the best we were all day. We got stage points in Stage 2 and that was huge. It gives us a shot going into Bristol Motor Speedway. Hopefully, we bring the best car that we can so that we can make a run and advance into the next round of the Playoffs.”

Dillon, who has won an Xfinity race at Bristol in 2016, is still looking for his first Cup win at the high-banked short track. He finished 10th at the Food City 500 in April and hopes he can build on that finish Saturday night. Dillon says Bristol provides the perfect venue for a Playoff elimination race.

“Night racing at Bristol Motor Speedway is special," Dillon said. "No other crowd like that. The energy is electric going into the Last Great Colosseum. I can’t wait to get there and run all over that track. It’s a fun one. I think every time you walk inside that place you get goose bumps. You get excited. The adrenaline is always pumping. I love going to Bristol.”

Overtaking one of the drivers ahead of him will be a challenge for the 35-year-old. 

Cindric’s average finish in five starts at Thunder Valley is 22.6, and his best result is 13th last year. Chastain has posted three top 10s in 10 starts, all coming since he joined Trackhouse Racing in 2022 and all in the Gen 7 race car. Chastain was seventh in the 2025 spring race.

Since his victory in Charlotte’s Coca-Cola 600 in May, Chastain has posted six finishes of 11th or better. He is ready for the challenge Saturday night.

“I think it puts us in a spot where we are fast enough to stay above the cut line, but a failure or an error, it's easy to hit the wall here,” Chastain said. “They've painted them (the walls) back to their old all-black. They're waiting on you if you make a mistake, so we’ve got 500 laps to get through.”

Shane van Gisbergen, four points behind Dillon after two Playoff races, likely will have to depend on calamity to others to advance, and both Alex Bowman and Josh Berry—35 and 45 points below the elimination line, respectively—for practical purposes will be driving in must-win scenarios.

Chase Briscoe and Denny Hamlin already have claimed two of the berths in the Round of 12 with their respective victories at Darlington and Gateway. At 60 points above the elimination line, Kyle Larson likely will enjoy 500 laps around the high-banked track without worrying about ouster from the postseason.

Bristol is a track where Larson’s high-speed mastery has been in full display. Winner of the last two races at Bristol, the driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet led 873 of a possible 1,000 laps in those two events.

Larson comes to the elimination race on a streak of six straight top-five finishes, including three wins. And though Goodyear is providing a softer right-side tire for Saturday’s race, Larson believes his history at the track will weigh more heavily on his performance there.

Winning three in a row is tough at Bristol. Only four drivers in NASCAR history have won three or more races in a row. Larson hopes to join that group Saturday, which includes Fred Lorenzen, Cale Yarborough, Darrell Waltrip and Kurt Busch. Busch was the last to do it, in the spring race of 2004.

With all that's on the line, Larson says he is going to try and keep things calm in the cockpit.

“I’m not really going into it with any different mind-set than what we typically would go to Bristol,” Larson said Wednesday during a Zoom conference with reporters. “I’ve been to Bristol with many different packages and tire combinations, probably, and Bristol’s still Bristol.

“It races amazing, and I’ve always been competitive there. I just feel like I’ve got a natural feel for the pace and rhythm that it takes to go good there. I hope our car’s close again and we can execute a good weekend like we have the last two times there.”

Some of the non-playoff drivers to watch include Xfinity Series regular Austin Hill, who is driving the No. 33 Chevy for RCR in the race. Truck points leader Corey Heim is going to be driving the No. 67 machine for 23XI Racing. Local favorite Chad Finchum, a former ARCA winner at Bristol in 2016, is making his second Bristol Cup start in his career and the 12 Cup start of his career. The Knoxville native will be piloting the No. 66 Ford Dark Horse Mustang for Garage 66 Racing. 

For ticket information, please call (866) 415-4158 or visit the Bristol Motor Speedway website.

- NASCAR Newswire and staff reports