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NASCAR Camping World Trucks Series
DILLON: The Mighty Daytona
DRIVER DIARY: I couldn’t pick a better or more prestigious track than Daytona to kick off my first full season in the truck series...
Austin Dillon  | http://www.teamdillonracing.com/  |  Posted February 10, 2010   Daytona Beach, FL
Austin Dillon continues to flex his muscle at Darlington. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
The wait is finally over for me... Daytona is here.

All the anticipation, planning, photo sessions, commercials and interviews leading up to my rookie season behind the wheel of the No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet come together this week.

And I couldn’t pick a better or more prestigious track to kick off my first full season for Richard Childress Racing in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Dale Earnhardt made the black No. 3 famous and Mike Skinner set the standard in the Truck Series by winning the first championship. I am fortunate enough to be making my own little bit of history in it this week.

Saturday’s race will mark the first time the No. 3 Chevy has competed in a Truck race at Daytona. That’s really special to me. I know Earnhardt was a lot of drivers’ and race fans’ hero, because he was mine, too, so it’s cool for me to have the chance to put the No. 3 back out on the track. The only thing that could top this feeling would be pulling the Bass Pro Shops Chevy truck into Victory Lane at the World Center of Racing.

I’ve been asked countless times about the pressure of stepping into one of the most famous numbers in all of motorsports. My thought is that anytime you compete in a top division of NASCAR, a little pressure comes with the territory, regardless of what number is on the door. Sure, there’s probably a little extra weight on my shoulders because of who ran the number before me, but I’ve raced it my entire career in various series. As long as we’re having a good time and running competitively, the rest will fall into place.

Going to the front at Daytona means knowing how to work the draft, which is something a little new to me. I got my first taste of drafting last October at Talladega and learned a lot from the other competitors. Saturday’s race will be a different animal than practice because there will be more risks taken and more moves made for position, but that just means I’ll have to be on my toes and pick up on things as quickly as possible.

No one was better at working the draft and “seeing air” than Earnhardt, and you can’t go to Daytona without thinking about his unbelievable performances there. My favorite memory was when he finally won the Daytona 500 in 1998, and my grandma dragged me to Victory Lane to celebrate with the team. I was so young but that moment still gave me goose bumps because I knew exactly how special and historic it was. I had watched Earnhardt and the No. 3 guys try to win that race only to get their hearts broken every time, so it was very cool to share that experience with them.

Now that it’s my turn at Daytona, I expect my fellow drivers to push me hard but also welcome me into the fold. They’ve been great so far and have been more than generous with their time and advice. Skinner was a tremendous help to me last season and I know he’ll be right there the next time I need him, especially when we get to tracks I’ve never been to before. I’ve only been to eight of the tracks at which the Truck Series races, so my learning curve will be a steep and long one.

But I’ve got a good crew chief behind me in Danny Stockman and I’m really comfortable working with him. He’s a veteran of the sport but he’s sharing the yellow rookie stripe with me this season as a first-year crew chief. In the past, my grandpa always stressed not to put a rookie driver with a rookie crew chief, but I think we’re going to make a good pair.

It all starts this week. I can’t wait to get out on the track and do what I know how to do. All the commercials and off-track obligations have been fun but I’m eager to prove myself behind the wheel and run competitively. We’ve got an awesome team assembled on the No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet and we’re all ready to show everyone what we’re made of.

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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