DILLION GETS FIRST NASCAR WIN SINCE 2018 IN FORT WORTH

Austin Dillon took the lead late and held on in a green-white-checker finish, to take the title at the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.

Dillion stayed in front after the restart and beat rookie teammate Tyler Reddick to the checkered flag, giving Richard Childress Racing its first 1-2 NASCAR Cup finish in nine years.

An extremely dehydrated Dillon got the checkered flag and did some celebratory burnouts on the front stretch before going to the infield care center.

Dillon picked up his third career win—his first since the 2018 Daytona 500—staying in front on three late restarts, the first after an incident with 29 laps left that shuffled Ryan Blaney, who had a fast car all day, to a lap back.

Joey Logans finished third, with Kyle Bush coming in fourth a day after he finished ahead of the field in two races -- having an Xfinity Series victory nullified after his car failed a post-race inspection before winning the Truck Series race.   Series points leader Kevin Harvick was fifth.

There were an estimated 15,000-20,000 spectators at the track, where it reached 97 degrees late in the first summertime Cup race at Texas.  It was supposed to be a spring race nearly four months ago before it was postponed and then shuffled in NASCAR's schedule. Inside the cars, it was 130-140 degrees.

Racing returns Thursday night in Kansas.