By Luis Torres, Staff Writer/Photographer
FORT WORTH, Texas – Austin Dillon enters Sunday’s Würth 400 at Texas Motor Speedway with tremendous urgency surrounding him and the entire Richard Childress Racing organization.
After 10 races, Dillon is currently 24th in points, a tale that’s come to define the former Texas winner in recent years where he’s mired towards the bottom portion of the standings.
Between Kyle Busch’s struggles where he just scored his first top-10 all season last Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway and Dillon yet to break through in the column, it may appear that morale at RCR is low.
However, Dillon explained during Friday’s media availability that morale have remained kinder where his crew are willing to go leaps and boundaries to find the lost competitive spark. This included a key team meeting where both drivers shared the vitriols that’s plagued the organization for a long period of time.
“One of the guys in the shop came to me this week and said – ‘Hey, dude, we’ll do whatever. We’ll stay late.’ We want to prove who we are as a company and who we’ve always been, which is that we battle and that we never give up,” Dillon explained.
“When you think we’re down, we’re going to pop off a win. We’re going to figure it out and that’s what great race teams do. I have all the confidence in the world that we can get to where we need to be.”
Dillon added that he’s been proud of the team’s will of maximizing its capabilities to get his and Busch’s car back up to speed. Each small victory comes a long way to him, especially when it benefits all parties.
“We’re maximizing the capability of our cars from the No. 3 team side. We’ve got to get the No. 8 (Busch) to do that, and then when we can both be doing that, hopefully the small things that we figure out will drop those finishes from 15th on a good day to eighth to 10th,” said Dillon.
“And then, once you start running from eighth to fifth, I think it’s everybody’s game in these races, especially as long as they are; come down to a late race restart, and we can make it happen from there. Also, Kyle had a good meeting with the entire shop floor at the beginning of the week. That was positive.”
Texas Motor Speedway have been kind to the series veteran, an excellent place for Dillon to have a strong run. As indicated with a pair of top-10 finishes in the last two visits in “The Lone Star State.” This was also the site of his only win of the 2020 season where tire strategy and clean air allowed him to fend off then-teammate Tyler Reddick to win his third career Cup win.
Six years later, Dillon always look forward coming to the 1.5-mile circuit and with an additional race in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, it could spell a good omen.
“Texas is a place that we’ve had some success at as a company. RCR has had some speed. We’ve been able to click off some good finishes. Also, getting to run the No. 3 Boot Barn Chevrolet in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series this weekend will be a lot of fun.
“I haven’t done that in a long time. I think the last time I ran a race here in that series was in 2017, so looking forward to that challenge. And then, just trying to progress on the Cup side and get some good finishes.”
As of now, Dillon doesn’t have a clear plan on how many more O’Reilly races he’ll do after Saturday other than potentially one more. However, he felt running double duty will benefit him because he’ll have valuable track time in spite of the contrast of the two national touring machines.
“I think just getting your eyes on the track,” said Dillon. “Getting a feel of every bump and understanding how much you can arc. It’s just a fast start to the weekend, getting an extra couple laps on the track in practice.”
Coverage of the Andy’s Frozen Custard 340 begins at 3:30 p.m. ET on The CW where Dillon will roll off 20th on the gride. Sunday’s Cup race will air at 3:30 p.m. ET on FS1.
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