BRISTOL, Tenn. – Fresh off his fourth-place finish in last Sunday’s Consumers Energy 400 at Michigan International Speedway, Austin Dillon felt like he put his Richard Childress Racing team back on the map in their best performance since winning the season-opening Daytona 500.
In a year where the new Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 was expected to outshine its competitors, the General Motors product has struggled to live up to its hype with inconsistent finishes and winning two of the 23 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races thus far this season.
However, the recent uptick in performance from the powerhouse Chevrolet organizations Hendrick Motorsports and RCR has a reason for Dillon to be optimistic about the remaining races in the regular season – but the 10-race Playoff run starting at Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway next month.
“Yeah, you know, obviously that (Michigan) was a big run for our team there at RCR and ECR,” said Dillon. “Everybody back at the shop has been working really hard to turn the Camaro around for our side of things. We have seen some speed from other guys throughout the year and we have been close. We have had some qualifying runs that were positive, but we weren’t able to relate it to the race.”
The 2013 NASCAR Xfinity Series champion said as the Playoffs approach it was important for his Welcome, N.C.-based team to be able to show that they can take a strong qualifying performance – like they earned at Michigan and maintain it throughout the race.
“I think last week we proved that we could relate the speed in qualifying to the race and that is huge,” Dillon added. “Great momentum coming up to some good tracks for us with Bristol, Darlington, finishing with Indy leading into the Playoffs. I definitely think if we carry this speed into the Playoffs we are going to be in a good spot.”
While fourth was great for Dillon and his team in the Irish Hills, the 28-year-old would have likely finished second to winner Kevin Harvick, but a problem coming to the white flag slipped the No. 3 from second to fourth at the checkered flag.
“We did a lot of work to figure out what happened the last lap and we took the tire down and we broke a left front belt,” Dillon explained. “I’ve got a picture of it, we got lucky that it made it back around, so I was at the Goodyear Tire Test (in Texas) and they saw the picture and they just kind of put it on fatigue because we had 77 laps on our tires.
“I don’t know. That is just kind of frustrating, but it is part of the game I guess. Glad we made it back around and only lost two spots from it. But that was that reason.”
With the strong run in Michigan behind them and 500 laps on the docket for Saturday night’s Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race, Dillon said it’s important for his team not to get completely wrapped up in their recent strides.
He knows they need to be better if he’s going to have any opportunity to compete in the Championship 4 at Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway in November.
“We built a team that is very competitive as racers go on our team every one of them is a racer,” sounded Dillon. “Yeah, it’s frustrating when you start it at such a high at Daytona and then you have some struggles.
“We actually had a good run at Fontana like two weeks after Daytona. So then, momentum is still pretty good there and then you have a slump where we weren’t as competitive as we need to be. We found kind of where we were at compared to where we needed to be as far as the cars went and we went to work on them.
“We weren’t as good as we needed to be on some things and we got them better and it’s showing up late in the season and I think it should carry to the end of the season at this point. You’ve got to continue working in the areas that matter and that is what we are doing.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
