Can a united front carry Chevrolet back to Victory Lane? Austin Dillon hopes so
Photo by to by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)
TALLADEGA, Ala.—Austin Dillon will start from the pole for the Geico 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday.
He will line up alongside the Ford Mustang of Aric Almirola, whom Dillon dumped to win the 2018 Daytona 500. Clint Bowyer and Brad Keselowski, two former Talladega winners, will follow in their Fords.
To duplicate his success in the Great American Race—and end a 45-race losing streak—Dillon will have to avoid the minefields scattered along the 2.66-mile speedway. He plans to rely on his fellow Chevrolet drivers and the resources afforded him by the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing team.
At the nucleus of that squad is crew chief Danny Stockman, who led Dillon to five Xfinity Series wins and the 2013 championship before rejoining the driver this year. Has the pair rekindled the necessary chemistry to become a weekly contender on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series?
“That relationship has never really gone away,” Dillon said. “It has distanced itself, but now I feel like – I told him after one of the races, we had a practice at Phoenix and we started yelling back and forth at each other and we were fast in the practice. I told him we were going to do this and he was like, all right. We did it and the car didn’t respond to what I wanted, and then he did what he wanted to do and it went fast again.
“After practice, I told him that was the best practice we’ve had since we’ve been separated and that I loved him again. It was just me and him joking with each other, but it was a good race for us at Phoenix, and it kind of got us back on the right path.”
The following week at Auto Club Speedway, Dillon won the pole and posted his first top-10 finish of the season. Since Stockman called Dillon out, the team has averaged an 11th-place finish. In their last start, Dillon scored a season-best sixth-place result at Richmond Raceway.
“He’s just constantly on me, and that’s what I have to have, I have to have that guy and I’m a fiery personality and he hates to lose at anything, whether it’s both practice sessions, qualifying and the race – I love that,” Dillon said. “That’s the mentality you should have every weekend, as a company and as a race team. Everybody should want to win everything they do.”
Chevrolet feels the same way. The manufacturer is still searching for its first win of the season. Kurt Busch, who returned to the manufacturer this year with Chip Ganassi Racing, is currently the top Chevy driver. He is seventh in the standings and has the fourth-best average finish of 8.9. But there hasn’t been a Chevy driver in the Championship 4 round since Jimmie Johnson won the 2016 title. Chase Elliott got Chevy's most recent win at Kansas Speedway last year.
At Daytona in February, Chevrolet forged an unholy alliance with Toyota in an attempt to stop the Fords. Denny Hamlin won in a Toyota, followed by Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Kyle Busch and Erik Jones. The top-running Chevy was Ty Dillon in fifth.
The Bow-tie teams met on Saturday to discuss how to present a united front this weekend. With seven-straight wins, Ford has dominated the action at Talladega. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was the last Chevy driver to win. That was in 2015.
“I think that’s in the past,” Dillon said of partnering with another manufacturer. “I think it’s cool that we’ve learned from that and moved forward. I think it was cool today sitting in there with all of our guys in one group having a group discussion about what we need to do to accomplish our goals for (Sunday).
“We’re just unified as a group now and in a better position to work hard. We know we saw other teams doing a really good job of it here at Talladega last year. For us, (the meeting) was just about working together to get a Chevrolet to Victory Lane the best we can. Put ourselves all in a better position, and that’s just kind of what it was--working together was the message.”
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