Richard Childress Racing

Recent News

August 21, 2012

Austin Dillon Event Preview: Food City 250

"We are going for it all these last 11 races. I don't think our team is really points racing. We are just going out for wins. We still have a great shot at this championship and we are there and in the hunt."

RCR/HHP RCR/HHP

Event Preview Fact Sheet
Austin Dillon, No. 3 American Ethanol Chevrolet

Event/Date:         Food City 250 – August 24, 2012
Venue:            Bristol Motor Speedway – Bristol, Tenn.


Race Notes and Quotes:

This Week’s American Ethanol Chevrolet at Bristol Motor Speedway … Austin Dillon will pilot Chassis No. 093 from the Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Nationwide Series stable in the Food City 250. Dillon drove this Chevrolet to a third-place finish at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in July, a ninth-place finish at Richmond International Raceway in April and a fourth-place finish at Phoenix International Raceway in March. This is a former Kevin Harvick Inc., chassis which was refurbished during the off season.

Dillon at BMS … Dillon has one BMS start to his credit in the Nationwide Series, posting a 12th-place finish in March after he was thwarted by a NASCAR-issued penalty for exiting pit road too fast and challenged by a loose-handling condition throughout the race.  He has two starts at the half-mile track in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, finishing 17th in 2010 and 23rd in 2011.

The Season So Far … According to NASCAR’s Loop Data Season-to-Date Statistics, Dillon has completed 88.2 percent of his Laps in the Top 15, ranking him second and is ranked second in the Fastest Laps Run category with 279 laps so far this season. The Nationwide Series rookie has an Average Running Position of 9.450 in the season’s 22 contested Nationwide Series races, ranking him third among all drivers, has completed 95.69 percent of Laps on the Lead Lap, ranking him third among all competitors, maintains a Driver Rating of 102.2, ranking him third, has the fourth-fastest Speed in Traffic and has 283 Laps Led this season, ranking him fifth. He is the sixth-Fastest Driver Late in a Run, has the sixth-fastest Green Flag Speed, is fifth-Fastest on Restarts, ranks sixth in Quality Passes with 810 and is the eighth-fastest Driver Early in a Run.

Get to the Points … Dillon ranks fourth in the 2012 Nationwide Series driver championship point standings, trailing RCR teammate and current point leader Elliott Sadler by 35 points. The Welcome, N.C., driver currently leads the Sunoco Rookie of the Year standings over Cole Whitt.

Think Green … RCR’s No. 3 Chevrolet team will sport the black and green colors of American Ethanol this weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway. 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.

About POET … American Ethanol will feature POET on the No. 3 Chevrolet this weekend. POET, one of the world’s largest ethanol producers, is a leader in biorefining through its efficient, vertically integrated approach to production. The 25-year-old company has a production capacity in excess of 1.6 billion gallons of ethanol and 9 billion pounds of high-protein animal feed annually from its network of 27 production facilities. POET also operates a pilot-scale cellulosic bio-ethanol plant, which uses corn cobs, leaves, husk and some stalk as feedstock, and expects to commercialize the process in Emmetsburg, Iowa through its joint venture with DSM. For more information, visit http://www.poet.com.

Meet Dillon … Dillon is scheduled to participate in a question and answer session for Bristol Motor Speedway season ticket holders at the Bristol Mall on Thursday, August 23 at 5:30 p.m. Eastern Time. The mall is located at 500 Gate City Highway, Bristol, Virginia, 24201.

Lizard Lickin’ … Dillon appeared on the truTV show Lizard Lick Towing on Monday. In the episode, RCR Teammates Ty Dillon and Elliott Sadler joined Ron, Bobby and Amy of Lizard Lick Towing to play a prank on Austin.

Circuit Gilles Villeneuve Recap … No. 3 AdvoCare Chevrolet team used fuel strategy to their advantage at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, scoring a ninth-place finish in the NAPA Auto Parts 200 NASCAR Nationwide Series race. Dillon survived two late-race restarts and dodged several cars in front of him who slowed on the race track as they ran out of fuel in the closing laps to post a ninth-place finish, securing his first top-10 finish in Nationwide Series road course competition.

AUSTIN DILLON QUOTES:
Are you excited to get back to oval racing after back-to-back road course races on the schedule?
“The road course races were fun for me because there is so much for me to learn about driving on a road course, but oval racing is our bread and butter on the No. 3 AdvoCare team so I am definitely looking forward to getting back to what I know, and that’s the ovals. We are going for it all these last 11 races. I don’t think our team is really points racing. We are just going out for wins. We still have a great shot at this championship and we are there and in the hunt. We are 11 races out from Homestead-Miami Speedway and we are going to be there towards the end. My team and I both have committed to each other that we are going to be there to the end and fight for this championship in our rookie year in the Nationwide Series. We want to be there and to get some wins along with it. We have only missed one lap this entire season and that was at Iowa Speedway, the place we have had the best car all year. We almost got the lap back but we couldn’t get a caution flag when we needed it. It’s been a great year and we just want to learn from here on out so that we have the experience to go kick their butt next year.”

For a while, it looked like Elliott Sadler had dug a hole in the point standings and wouldn’t be able to fight back. Do you feel like he is your biggest competition?
“Elliott and his team have done a good job of keeping the No. 2 Chevrolet in the driver championship points lead for a long time this year. Looking at how the team rallied and came back from a letdown at Indianapolis Motor Speedway to win Iowa Speedway was pretty telling how strong the team is. That was pretty big for them. It’s been fun working with the No. 2 team and the No. 33 team this year in the Nationwide Series. We have one common goal and that is to win a championship and races in the RCR Nationwide Series shop. It doesn’t matter who gets it as long as it comes out of our shop, so I enjoy racing with those guys on the Nos. 2 and 33 teams.”

Back to top