AVONDALE, Ariz. – A gutsy call for Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon came up five laps short in Sunday’s TicketGuardian 500 at ISM (Ariz.) Raceway.
After spending much of the afternoon placed solidly in the top-15, Dillon’s crew chief Danny Stockman made a gamble at the end of Stage 2 to take just fuel only – allowing Dillon to restart the final run to the finish second alongside RCR teammate Daniel Hemric.
Unfortunately, it didn’t appear the gasman got all the fuel in the tank.
While Hemric quickly faded shortly after the Lap 158 restart, Dillon was able to withstand a slew of cautions to maintain his presence inside the top-five.
As the laps clicked away, Dillon on older tires and saving fuel was able to cling to a spot inside the top-five. Dropping from fourth to fifth over a span of 50 laps it appeared that Dillon would earn his first top-10 finish of the year – but the 2018 Daytona 500 champion informed his team with five laps to go that he was out of fuel and was heading to pit road.
Quick work by his RCR team kept the No. 3 Dow Chevrolet on pit road for seconds before sending Dillon back into action.
The checkered flag waved with Dillon 21st, the fifth car one lap down.
“Man, we had a great No. 3 Dow Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 today at ISM Raceway,” said Dillon. “I hate that it ended with us running out of fuel with under 10 laps to go. Danny Stockman (crew chief) and the team did a great job focusing on setting us up throughout the weekend to have good balance during the race. I would occasionally build tight into Turn 3 and while rolling through the corner, but nothing I couldn’t handle. We did struggle a little bit during the race when we would get pushed back in traffic and getting a speeding penalty didn’t help.
“Danny made a good call during the final stage to take fuel only to put us back up front but that cut us just a couple laps shy of making it. I was doing everything I could to save through the remaining cautions and lift as much as I could once we got spread out. It was just a little short this time around. We know we have the speed to contend up front though, so we’ll keep working and get back up there soon.”
If not for the pit stop, the finish would have been huge for Dillon to get his 2019 season on-track. After finishing 16th in this year’s Daytona 500, Dillon has finished the last three races 21st, 20th and 21st respectively at Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway, Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway and Phoenix.
Dillon, 29, remains 21st in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) championship standings heading to Auto Club (Calif.) Raceway to complete the series’ west coast swing.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01
