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NASCAR Camping World Trucks Series
DILLON: Marching Into Martinsville
DRIVER DIARY: It seems like forever ago that we kicked off the season in Daytona...
Austin Dillon  | http://www.teamdillonracing.com/  |  Posted March 25, 2010   Charlotte, NC
Austin Dillon continues to flex his muscle at Darlington. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
After another couple of weeks off in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, it will be nice to get back on track and roll into Martinsville this weekend. It seems like forever ago that we kicked off the season in Daytona but we’ve only had two races in that six-week period.

Actually, the No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet Silverado team viewed the Atlanta race as the actual start to our season because Daytona turned out poorly and we didn’t really get to show what we had. So, we pulled into Atlanta with the goal of staying on the track all day and running every lap.

But RCR teammate Jeff Burton had another goal in mind. He pulled my crew chief, Danny Stockman, and me aside before the race and asked us what our goals were. We told him we wanted to finish the race. But Burton said, “No, that’s not a good enough goal. You need to set a position.” So, we talked about it and decided a top-10 finish would be a great day for us and we ended up achieving that.

We finished 10th at Atlanta and were pretty happy about it. We took new tires on the last caution with 14 laps remaining and I knew it was time to go. When we took the green, I started hustling the truck and finally figured out how to get through turns one and two because I was tight through there all day. I learned to roll into the gas a little harder and roll to it in the center of the corner, which kept the truck turning well. After discovering that, I think we could have picked up some more spots if we’d had more time.

So, going forward, we will set a finishing position for ourselves and try to meet that every week. Now we head to Martinsville with confidence from our Atlanta run. We built a brand-new truck for this weekend and I think it’s going to be fast. We tested it at “Little Rock” at Rockingham, which is similar in some respects to Martinsville, and it drove really well.

Our biggest challenge will be making sure we don’t get moved around too much on the track. I’ve been watching DVDs of all the 2009 Truck Series races and there was a lot of bumping and pushing each other out of the way early in this race last spring. It seemed like everyone was anxious to get to the front early in the race, so we’d love to try to start there. Hopefully, we can get inside the top 10 quickly and hold our position until the last 50 laps. If we can make it that far and we’re good enough, we’ll start moving guys out of our way and head to the front. To have a good day at Martinsville, we’ve got to stay out of trouble, keep the fenders on the truck and then use it up at the end.

As soon as the checkered flag waves at Martinsville, I’m heading down the road to 311 Speedway to run a dirt race. I still do this as often as I can and ran a couple of times during the off weeks in the Truck Series.

I also had my spring break from classes the week after the Atlanta race but I didn’t do too much. I went out with some buddies a few times but spent the rest of the time hanging out at the house and at the race shop.

After all, if you’re doing what you’ve always dreamed of, why take a break from it?

Austin Dillon is the rookie driver of the No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet Silverado for Richard Childress Racing in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Dillon is the grandson of RCR President and CEO, Richard Childress, and the son of Mike Dillon, a former NASCAR driver who is now RCR’s vice president of competition. The Clemmons, N.C., native began his racing career in 2005 driving Bandaleros and Legends cars, progressing to dirt and asphalt Late Model cars by 2007. He earned rookie of the year honors and finished second in the 2008 NASCAR Camping World Series East point standings. That same year, Dillon made his NASCAR Nationwide Series debut at Richmond International Raceway in September and earned a fourth-place finish at Memphis Motorsports Park in October in only his second race. In 2009, Dillon competed in the NASCAR Camping World Series, ARCA Racing Series, Nationwide Series and made two starts in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driving RCR’s famous black No. 3 Chevrolet Silverado. In the fall of 2009, he enrolled in High Point University’s Nido R. Quebin School of Communications as an incoming freshman. For more information about Dillon, please visit: www.rcrracing.com, www.teamdillonracing.com and www.bassproshops.com. To follow Dillon on Twitter or Facebook, please visit: twitter.com/rcr3adillon or www.facebook.com/RichardChildressRacing.



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Austin Dillon

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