On a blistering hot day at Indianapolis Colts training camp last month, Austin Dillon sought one of the few available slivers of shade as he watched players go through their practice routine.
Encountering shade is something Dillon is plenty familiar with — he’s gotten it from NASCAR fans during his entire racing career, labeled as the undeserving “silver spoon” driver who only keeps his job because his grandfather, Richard Childress, owns the race team.
But for a guy who has heard it all, he’s remarkably unfazed by the criticism. Frankly, it’s because he doesn’t agree with it; in his heart, Dillon knows he would step out of the seat if it was the best thing for Richard Childress Racing.
Dillon has a scout’s mindset for athletes. He demonstrated that by pointing out various players on the Colts’ field and breaking down their attributes (Dillon would be a formidable opponent in your fantasy football league) and discussing his roster choices for the Carolina Cowboys (a Professional Bull Riders team for which he is the general manager).
And genuinely, Dillon is clear-eyed about his own abilities as well. At age 35, Dillon knows he is not Denny Hamlin or Joey Logano, which is why last year he cried during the appeals process for his infamous Richmond victory — emotional that until a late caution, he was going to beat the two future Hall of Famers straight up.
Earlier this year, Dillon told The Athletic he would transition to a full-time management role “when I have exhausted all efforts and the success hasn’t come with it and the right person is there to pick up the weight and I can successfully help the company in a better way at RCR.”
“When that time comes, I’ll be ready for it, and I’ll try and make us as competitive as I can, always,” he added.
But for now, Dillon believes he’s still good enough to get it done, to be an asset to RCR while in the driver’s seat of the No. 3 car. Nights like Saturday seem to back that up. Back at Richmond one year later, he led more than 100 laps in the most complete race of his career and earned a win that vaulted him into the playoffs.
He has back-to-back seasons with a win for the first time since 2017-18 — and during a time in which RCR has struggled. If you want a measurement of how the team is doing overall, just look at Dillon’s teammate, the great Kyle Busch — who has not won at all in the last two and a half seasons.
And Dillon is doing all of this with more responsibilities than a typical driver, because he’s involved with RCR management decisions.
“If the outside people knew how much he did on top of this — he’ll be at the shop on Monday at a meeting with Richard, talking about the health of the company,” crew chief Richard Boswell said. “He’s got a lot on his plate, which makes it harder for him to work at this level as a Cup driver as well. But he stays at it all week long.”
On that steamy day at Colts training camp, Dillon and Busch hung around until practice was over to meet cornerback Kenny Moore II. Moore, who described himself as a big race fan, was enthusiastic about meeting both drivers — and not just Busch, the future Hall of Famer.
“I’ve been seeing y’all names for a long time now,” Moore told them.
Indeed, Dillon has quietly put together a 12-year Cup Series career in which he has six Cup wins — including two crown jewels — and two lower-series championships. But for anyone tired of seeing his name, there’s bad news: You’re going to be hearing about Dillon for a long time to come, because he’s being groomed to take the reins of RCR when Childress, now 79, eventually steps away.
Dillon said the two men already have “knock-down, drag-out” fights about the direction of the company at times because Childress is “loyal to a fault” with personnel whereas Dillon sees the need for change. But Dillon feels he’s making an impact, even if it’s not immediate.
“He usually has a way about it where you tell him one thing and he’s going to get upset about it,” Dillon said. “Then two weeks later (he) turns around (and says), ‘What do you think about this?’ ‘That’s a great idea, man. I love that.’”
Reddick at risk?
Dillon was 28th in the point standings prior to Saturday night, so his playoff berth was certainly unexpected with two races remaining. And combined with a bad night for Tyler Reddick — after Reddick was spun in a chain-reaction incident triggered by Daniel Suárez — there’s suddenly a dramatic shift in the potential playoff field.
That’s because Reddick, who is currently seventh in the standings and has shown plenty of speed at times this season despite not winning, is now in jeopardy of missing the cut. That’s shocking, considering the more likely scenario heading into Richmond was Reddick would clinch a berth if there was no new winner.
But now Reddick is only 29 points ahead of Alex Bowman, who currently has the final position on points, and if there is another new winner at Daytona to take a guaranteed berth, just one driver will make the field based on points. Should Reddick crash at Daytona (entirely possible given the frequency of the Big One) and Bowman end up with a good night, Reddick could be out.
Suddenly, Tyler Reddick will have to sweat it out at Daytona. A bad day there, plus a new winner and a good day for Alex Bowman could doom his playoff hopes. (Samuel Corum / Getty Images)
Did anyone see this coming? Surely not as recently as last week, when Reddick left Watkins Glen with a 117-point lead over the cutoff spot. Even if there were two new winners, he was still 57 points — almost an entire race — ahead of Bowman.
But Dillon’s win, along with the ill-fated Suárez wreck and Bowman’s excellent Richmond race (a second-place finish) suddenly combined to bring doubt into play. Now, a driver who made a Championship 4 appearance last year and is ahead of eight of this season’s playoff drivers in the point standings, has to sweat it out for one more race.
If you were Reddick’s team, what strategy would you use at Daytona? You would have to assume there will be a new winner in your scenario-planning, so that leaves a points race with Bowman. One idea would be to hang back and try to force Bowman into running hard; after all, Bowman would have to be on offense for stage points and his overall result. While that could appear conservative, it also provides some level of protection from the Big One and letting others take themselves out (thus filling the bottom of the running order with DNFs and gambling Bowman cannot gain 30 points that way).
Greatyear
While it’s unfortunate tire supplier Goodyear has been given the onus of fixing what ails NASCAR’s Next Gen car on short tracks, the company certainly provided more than just a glimmer of hope on Saturday night.
The race was entertaining and interesting almost entirely because of the tire wear. The various strategies allowed for a wide discrepancy in speed, which created passing opportunities — which is what many have been pleading for, particularly on short tracks.
Does it mean Goodyear can replicate this everywhere by bringing a soft tire? No, not necessarily. Multi-groove Richmond, last repaved in 2004, is one of NASCAR’s oldest surfaces and naturally wears tires. Some of the newer repaves would require Goodyear to go even softer with its tire compounds, which is a stretch given the company’s current tools.
So while Richmond showed what is possible with the car, it also should be enjoyed on its own merits instead of viewed as the new standard going forward for other short tracks. At this time, that doesn’t seem realistic.
Lord, Byron!
William Byron won his first regular-season championship on Saturday night after a 12th-place finish — combined with Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott’s first DNF of the year — was enough to clinch the prize of 15 bonus points with one race remaining before the playoffs begin.
Even though Byron hit a slump with a stretch of poor results this summer (he finished outside the top 15 in six of eight races before winning earlier this month at Iowa Speedway), he believed his No. 24 team showed enough speed all along. That helped alleviate some of the typical concerns that have come when the team gets off to a hot start and then slips in the midseason stretch.
“We’re in rhythm, in sync,” he said. “The years we’ve been on the other side, it’s a lot of questions, a lot of doubt that things are going to work out.
“Now we’ve been kind of through the wringer of a lot of different things this year. Every race has kind of been different in terms of what we fight. … It feels nice to go into the playoffs hitting on all cylinders, just operating well. I don’t feel like we’ve ever really slowed down.”
What’s particularly notable about Saturday night’s achievement is Byron had coughed up a triple-digit lead in the standings when Elliott roared back to take the top spot by 16 points at Dover (less than a month ago). Then, in just four races, Byron reclaimed the lead and did enough to wrap up the title before even taking the green flag for the regular-season finale.
(Photo of Austin Dillon celebrating Saturday’s win: Samuel Corum / Getty Images)
