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Austin Dillon
Austin Dillon
Born April 27, 1990 (1990-04-27) (age 33)
Lewisville, North Carolina
Awards
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series statistics
Car no. / Team   3    - Richard Childress Racing
Best pts finish 11th (2017)
First race 2011 Hollywood Casino 400
First win 2017 Coca-Cola 600
Wins 2
NASCAR Xfinity Series statistics
Best pts finish 1st (2013)
First race 2008 Emerson Radio 250
First win 2012 Feed the Children 300
Wins 8
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series statistics
Best pts finish 1st (2011)
First race 2009 Lucas Oil 200
First win 2010 Lucas Oil 200
Wins 7

Austin Dillon is an American stock car racing driver currently competing in the #3 Dow Chemical Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing in the Monster Energy Cup Series. He is the older brother of Ty Dillon and grandson of Richard Childress.

He is the 2013 Nationwide Series champion, and 2011 Camping World Truck Series champion as well as 2010 Nationwide Series Rookie of the Year. Dillon won the 2014 Daytona 500 pole, the second year in a row a rookie won the pole at the 500. In 2018, Dillon won the Daytona 500 driving the #3 car, 20 years after Dale Earnhardt won the 1998 event and 17 years after his death in the 2001 event. The #3 car number was made famous by Earnhardt. Dillon led only the final lap in the event, tying him with Kurt Busch for the least laps led for a Daytona 500 winner.

Racing career

Dillon was the 2008 Sunoco Rookie of the Year in the K&N Pro Series East after one win at Greenville-Pickens Speedway, one Pole and ten top-10s in 13 races.[1] In 2008 and 2009, he drove the #2 Chevrolet Impala part time for Richard Childress Racing in the NASCAR Nationwide Series with sponsorship from Chevrolet. His career best finish was 4th at Memphis Motorsports Park in 2008. He made his first Camping World Truck Series start at Iowa Speedway, driving the #3 truck, the first time that the number has appeared in the three major series since Dale Earnhardt, Jr. in the Nationwide Series back in 2002. He would finish 12th. Dillon was supposed to start the Mountain Dew 250 at Talladega Superspeedway during the 2009 Camping World Truck Series season, but the truck failed track inspections, thus his time was removed and was not allowed to race. He will drive full-time in the series in 2010. At Texas Motor Speedway in June, Dillon got his first career pole and ended with a top 5 finish with 3rd and led 20 laps. Dillon is currently attending High Point University. On July 11, 2010, Dillon scored his first career NASCAR victory in the Lucas Oil 200 at Iowa Speedway in the Camping World Truck Series and brought the #3 truck back to victory lane since Bryan Reffner in 2000 at Texas Motor Speedway. Although, when Reffner won, he was not driving for RCR (Jay Sauter was the last driver to win for the team in 1999), he was driving for Team Menard. Austin Dillion would win his record setting 5th pole the most for a rookie in series history. Along with the pole he would lead over 92 laps of 146 to claim his 2nd win of the season at Las Vegas and the second of his career. Austin Dillon was also rookie of the year ending the season with 2 wins 7 top 5s and 16 top 10s. In 2013, Austin began his career in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. He quickly began winning poles including five straight and various others. In July 2013, he returned to his truck racing roots to compete in the Mudsummer Classic where he took home the win. After Tony Stewart was injured in a Sprint Car crash, he asked Austin if he would be interested in driving his Sprint Cup Series car at Michigan. He agreed to and will start the race on sunday.

First win

At the 2012 NASCAR Nationwide Series event at Kentucky, Austin Dillion won his first Nationwide Series event. But, Austin Dillion's #3 Chevy failied inspection. He was still credited to the win though because his team belives the track surface caused his car bumper to rise a 1/2 inch higher than the normal hight.

Records

  • Holds record for most NASCAR Xfinity Series poles in a row (4)

References

External links

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