Breaking news

NASCAR Cup

Austin Dillon looking for "more opportunities to win" this season

Austin Dillon earned his first win in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series last season and with it his second consecutive trip to the playoffs.

Jim Utter

Edited: Feb 3, 2018, 4:04 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Austin Dillon, Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet

But he’s still looking for more.

And Dillon, the 27-year-old grandson of longtime NASCAR team owner Richard Childress, believes the Richard Childress Racing organization laid a solid foundation last season from which to build on.

“I think you need to see us consistently running in the top-five and top-10 more often. We hovered from about eighth to 14th all year long,” Dillon said during the Charlotte Motor Speedway Media Tour.

“I felt like we were able to win a race last year, but to be able to have shots to win races consistently, we need to move that little group of cars forward. When you’re running from the fourth to the eighth position, you have a lot more opportunities to win.”

RCR is a slimmer and leaner organization this season, dropping from three to two full-time entries in the Cup Series.

Driver Paul Menard left for the Wood Brothers organization but Ryan Newman will return as Dillon’s teammate at RCR. Richard Petty Motorsports did move its home to the RCR campus and will have a technical alliance with the organization.

“That was something I was really excited about in the off-season, when we decided going to a little bit smaller organization,” Dillon said. “We did add the Petty organization to the group, so that was a good hit to bring in another driver.

“That’s what I was most excited about – to have another driver to look and see what he does with the throttle pedal and the brake. So bringing a little bit of different perspective into the group is good for me as a driver, so I can learn more.”

Dillon said he doesn’t see any drawbacks to a smaller organization.

“I see a lot of two-car teams being successful. I’m really positive about that,” he said. “It’s nice to be able to focus on two cars, and our crew chiefs are best friends. They’ll be working hard and they want to put RCR where it needs to be, and that’s winning championships.”

Dillon believes Chevrolet’s new Camaro ZL1 entry in the Cup series will also help improve RCR’s performance on the track. Newman was second-fastest during a two-day NASCAR test this week at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

“I’m really excited about the Camaro ZL1. It’s an awesome-looking race car,” he said. “Some of that speed that we were missing last year I hope we gain this year, as far as the body goes.

“It catches us up and puts us in a better position to be able to compete.”

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article New Chevrolet Camaro leads the way in Las Vegas NASCAR test

Next article NASCAR tweaks penalty system yet again

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

With rallying back in the spotlight, it could probably teach F1 a thing or two

Formula 1

With rallying back in the spotlight, it could probably teach F1 a thing or two

You Ask The Questions: Jack Miller

MotoGP

Qatar GP

You Ask The Questions: Jack Miller

Why the anticlimactic WEC title showdown was the worst-case scenario

WEC

WEC WEC

Monza

3 h

Why the anticlimactic WEC title showdown was the worst-case scenario

How Istanbul is revamping its F1 circuit to clinch long-term future

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Turkish GP

5 h

How Istanbul is revamping its F1 circuit to clinch long-term future

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts