JOLIET, Ill. –In a span of eight days, Austin Dillon is going to be a very busy race car driver. Sunday, he races in the Nationwide Series’ STP 300 at Chicagoland Speedway.
Wednesday, he climbs back into a race truck for the first time since he won the 2011 Camping World Truck Series championship to compete in the first-ever trucks race on dirt in the CarCash Mudsummer Classic Presented by CNBC Prime’s The Profit at Eldora Speedway.
“I’m really excited,” Dillon said. “I feel like we’ll have a shot to win. Eldora is a place I grew up dirt racing on, set the pole for the World 100 once and feel like it’s an unbelievable opportunity that NASCAR is giving us drivers to go and run on dirt. I’m looking forward to it and I think it’s going to be a great race, and if all goes well, I think you’ll see more of those come around. I’m just excited to be in the inaugural dirt race in the truck series.”
Three days later, he’ll race in the Indiana 250 at the fabled Indianapolis Motor Speedway, followed the next day by his first career appearance in Sunday’s Brickyard 400 Sprint Cup Series race.
“It’s going to be a pretty busy week and I’m looking forward to it,” Dillon said. “As far as starting the Brickyard 400, I think it’s going to be a very emotional day. Our first one is going to be very special.”
Dillon, who has finishes of sixth, fifth and third in his last three NNS races, comes into Sunday’s race third in the NNS standings just 12 points behind series leader Regan Smith.
“We’ve been able to win a truck race here (at Chicago), been successful here in the past and coming to a mile-and-a-half right now I think is really good for our team,” Dillon said. “We’ve showed some speed this year at mile-and-a-half’s and I really love this place. It’s got a lot of character; we’ve had a good week leading up to it and I’m just excited about being in Chicagoland.”
Dillon, who is one of four drivers in the hunt for the $100,000 Nationwide Dash 4 Cash prize Sunday (along with Brian Vickers, Brian Scott and Michael Annett), is still looking for his first win of the season and thinks he has a pretty good chance to do so at Chicagoland the same day.
“It’s been a real good year as far as speed, a decent year as far as us getting the finishes we deserve. Things are starting to turn at the right time. We’re still going to take our same mentality into everything and just try to win races, because foremost we want to get that first win off our back.”
He’d like nothing better than to be singing Frank Sinatra’s famous song, “Chicago, it’s my kind of town,” if he is fortunate enough to win Sunday’s race.
“I sure hope so,” Dillon said. “I love this town and the city. It’s a great place to come and see and we love coming here to Chicagoland.”
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
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