RELATED: Results | Chase Grid | Who's in, who's out
DOVER, Del. -- There was no talk of points, according to Austin Dillon, until there were 10 laps remaining in Sunday's Citizen Soldier 400 at Dover International Speedway.
By then the Richard Childress Racing driver was close enough to entertain thoughts of advancing to the Round of 12 in the NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup.
"They said I was 11 to the good," Dillon, 26, said, "and that was about it. I didn't want to listen to it really. I knew what we had to do."
Dillon earned the 12th and final Chase spot, staving off elimination with an eighth-place finish on the 1-mile concrete oval. His first Chase appearance will now include his first advancement to the second round.
Martin Truex Jr. (Furniture Row Racing No. 78 Toyota) and Kevin Harvick (Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 Chevrolet) were already locked in to the Round of 12 with victories at Chicagoland and New Hampshire, respectively.
Dillon was one of 14 hoping for either a trip to Victory Lane or the points necessary to advance.
In the end, the points did the trick.
Once the race was over and Dillon and the others had made their way to pit road, the former XFINITY and Camping World Truck Series champion quickly climbed from his car and rushed over to hug and exchange high-fives with crew members.
"We have been working hard as a team and I have been working hard as a driver to make myself better," Dillon said. "This series is very tough and I think the biggest thing was not giving up. We could have given up in that second practice (on Saturday) when it was raining and drizzling.
"I got frustrated and just tried to calm myself down and believe in what we were doing as a team."
The result?
"Man, we got it done," he said.
He had been 14th at Chicago and 16th at New Hampshire, leaving his Chase future as cloudy as the skies that hung over DIS for much of the weekend.
But in a race that saw only four cautions -- and none in the second half -- he kept his wits, his team made no mistakes on pit road and now it's on to the next round.
"It feels good," he said. "It's time to knock some more of these guys out, because we've got this opportunity. … I want to say that we're going to be the underdog in this next round, so let's go do it."
In addition to Truex, Harvick and Dillon, others advancing are defending series champion Kyle Busch along with Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards; Team Penske drivers Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski; Jimmie Johnson and Chase Elliott (Hendrick Motorsports); and Kurt Busch (SHR).
Those failing to advance were three-time champion Tony Stewart (SHR), Chip Ganassi Racing drivers Jamie McMurray and Kyle Larson as well as Front Row Motorsports wheelman Chris Buescher.