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March 6, 2012

Austin Dillon Event Preview: Las Vegas 300

"This race will be my first mile-and-a-half in a Nationwide car. It will be interesting to see how the air pushes you around and how aero-tight you get behind other cars."

Event Preview Fact Sheet

Austin Dillon
No. 3 American Ethanol Chevrolet Impala

Event/Date:        
Las Vegas 300 – March 10, 2012

Venue:           
Las Vegas Motor Speedway – Las Vegas, Nev.

Race Notes and Quotes:

This Week’s American Ethanol Chevrolet at Las Vegas Motor Speedway … Austin Dillon will pilot Chassis No. 102 from the Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Nationwide Series stable in the Las Vegas 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. This brand-new Chevrolet Impala was built by the RCR team during the off season and will be put through its first competitive paces this weekend.

Winner, Winner … This weekend marks Dillon’s first Nationwide Series start at Las Vegas Motor Speedway but he has two starts at the 1.5-mile oval in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series with one pole award and one race win to his credit (September 2010). In his most recent appearance at the track, Dillon started second and battled back from a lap-three accident to finish 17th.

Vegas Roots … Crew chief Danny Stockman’s first job within the sport was as a mechanic with Las Vegas-based Orleans Racing at the age of 19. Now 29, the crew chief has celebrated a Camping World Truck Series championship with Austin Dillon at RCR along with two Camping World Truck Series championships as a truck chief for Ron Hornaday Jr. at Kevin Harvick Inc. The Dillon-Stockman duo earned four wins and 12 poles in their two years in the Camping World Truck Series and each are considered rookies together this year in the Nationwide Series. In addition to Stockman’s Vegas roots, car chief Robert Stramiska previously worked for Orleans Racing and is a native of the West Coast, hailing from Manteca, Calif.

The Season so Far … According to NASCAR’s Loop Data Statistics, Dillon has an average running position of 11.955 in the season’s first two Nationwide Series races, ranking him eighth among all drivers. He has a driver rating of 97.4, ranking him seventh. He ranks second in the Closers category, improving an average of 8.5 spots in the last 10 percent of each race and is ranked fourth in the Fastest Laps Run category with 27 laps so far this season. He has the seventh-fastest speed in traffic, has completed 100 percent of laps on the lead lap and has completed 79.7 percent of his laps in the top 15, ranking him seventh among all drivers.

Get to the Points … With back-to-back top-five finishes in the Nationwide Series, Dillon is currently second in the championship point standings, trailing his RCR teammate, Elliott Sadler, by just 10 points.

Think Green … The Las Vegas 300 marks the first race this season in which the No. 3 Chevrolet will sport the black and green colors of American Ethanol. American Ethanol, a renewable source of cleaner burning energy from the bounty of America’s farmers, helps create new green jobs and a renewed sense of pride for the American worker, while helping to achieve greater energy security for our country. Led by Growth Energy, more than 100 different entities, from farmers and state corn growing boards to ethanol producers and biotech companies, are working with NASCAR to introduce a cleaner-burning fuel to America. The partnership with American Ethanol takes NASCAR’s environmental commitment to the next level.

Flash Back … Dillon finished fourth at Phoenix International Raceway after starting ninth and earned Sunoco Rookie of the Race honors.

Meet Dillon … Dillon is scheduled to make an appearance at the RCR Merchandise Hauler located in the midway area outside of the front stretch at Las Vegas Motor Speedway to sign autographs on Sunday, March 11 at 11 a.m. Local Time.

AUSTIN DILLON QUOTES:

As a former race winner at Las Vegas Motor Speedway do you have a lot of confidence heading into the race?
“Last year I wrecked on the first lap so that kind of destroyed the confidence I had at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but I still have a lot everywhere we go. We just have to be focused mentally and I will look back at our notes and what we did wrong at that race. We’ll take it in strides and try to learn every race.”

Do you feel like an old pro at Las Vegas Motor Speedway since you have been there in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series multiple times?
“This race will be my first mile-and-a-half in a Nationwide car. It will be interesting to see how the air pushes you around and how aero-tight you get behind other cars. I need to learn that so this will be a big learning race and it will show how we are capable of performing on mile-and-a-half tracks, which is important because those types of tracks are where you can gain a lot of points in the Nationwide Series.”

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