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NASCAR Camping World Trucks Series
DILLON: Uncharted Territory
I think every single driver and crew member is ready to get back on the track this weekend at Kansas Speedway...
Austin Dillon  | http://www.teamdillonracing.com/  |  Posted April 30, 2010   Kansas City, KS
Austin Dillon continues to flex his muscle at Darlington. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Off-weekends in NASCAR are way overrated...

The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series has been off for a solid month and I think every single driver and crew member is ready to get back on the track this weekend at Kansas Speedway. I know I am.

The month off did allow me to spend some more time studying and preparing for final exams, though. I finished up two term papers the other day, took my final exams and attended my last class of the semester. School is out just in time for the Truck Series to kick into high gear and for us to start running on a much more regular basis.

Kansas is our first stop and it will be a learning experience for the No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet Silverado team. Richard Childress Racing never has fielded a Truck team at Kansas, so we don’t have a notebook for this track specific to our series. That will be tough on the Bass Pro Shops team, but RCR has a lot of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series experience under its belt and we’ll lean on the Cup guys for information. My crew chief, Danny Stockman, has been to Kansas the past two years, as well, and should be a huge help to me.

If I need a driver to bounce ideas and questions off of, Ken Schrader will be there and is always glad to help. There are several drivers I can turn to to help me figure out the place. I’m also hoping my racing simulator will help me get around the track. I’ve spent a lot of time playing on it in preparation for this race and it’s usually a very good tool for learning about all these tracks I’ve never even seen before.

Atlanta was our first top-10 finish of the year and probably is the track closest in characteristics to Atlanta that I’ve run this season. They’re both fast but Kansas has its own character. There is a lot more room coming off of turn four at Kansas and it’s wider but without the banking you find at Atlanta. Kansas seems to be a cool and fast speedway and we’re hoping I adapt quickly when I get some laps under my belt.

We also learned a lot in the pits at Nashville a month ago, which is something that can help me at Kansas. Getting better and not losing spots on the restarts is one of the biggest things I’m learning right now.

There is so much to take in as a rookie in the Truck Series, not the least of which is the number of fans that love and respect the black No. 3 Chevy truck. It's a number that gets a lot of publicity and is a lot of fun to drive. I feel fortunate to be running the No. 3 because Dale Earnhardt made it famous. We’ve had mostly good reaction to bringing it back to NASCAR and most fans are glad to see it out on the track again, which is the most important part of this whole deal. If we go out and run well, the fans are going to love it. I hope we can give them something to love Sunday at Kansas.

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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