Dillon leaves no doubt in first Nationwide series win

The only thing that Austin Dillon didn’t win on Friday at Kentucky Speedway was the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series pole.

He didn’t win that because he wasn’t entered in the Sprint Cup series this weekend. Although it seemed his Nationwide Series car was fast enough that it may have been able to qualify on time for the Cup series race tomorrow night.

Dillon grabbed the pole for the Feed the Children 300 earlier on Friday evening and from then on he never looked back.

“Domination man,” Dillon said to ESPN2 reporters in victory lane. “It’s so much fun to come to the track with a group of racers.”

Only eight of the 200 laps weren’t led by Dillon.

The closest Dillon came to losing the lead, and the chance to win the race, was with 60 laps to go when the final restart came.

Dillon who had been strong on the restarts all night long, had another strong start, but so did the rest of the field. Heading towards turn one, Dillon, Kurt Busch and Justin Allgaier all were side by side. But as they entered the corner and started to round turn two, Dillon had pulled away, again.

With the laps winding down, the only thing that caught up to Dillon was a hot dog wrapper that blew onto his grille, but even that wasn’t enough to slow down the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, if anything it made him faster over the final 15 laps.

By the time Dillon crossed the finish line, he had a nine second lead over second place Busch.

Even though it looked easy, Dillon said he had to adjust on the car all night.

“I was loose the whole race,” Dillon said. “That last adjustment [Stockman Jr.] tightened the car up and I just took off.”

In his win, Dillon broke a track record, previously held by Carl Edwards in leading the most laps at  Kentucky. Dillon led 192 of the laps breaking the previous record record of 150 laps led.

“This is just real emotional,” said Danny Stockman Jr. Dillon’s crew chief. “Richard [Childress car owner] and Mike [Dillon Austin's dad] believed in me to take the kid to a new level.”

For the first time since 2007, Dillon became the first rookie that is racing the full season to win in the Nationwide series.

Dillon recorded a perfect driver rating for the race.

“[This win] it’s right up there with the top of them,” Richard Childress said to ESPN2 crews after the race on seeing his grandson get his first win in the Nationwide series.

Not only did Dillon take the first win of his Nationwide career, he took the points lead for the first time in the season as well.

Before the race Elliott Sadler held the points lead, but thanks to the near perfect night for Dillon he now leads the points by two over Sadler.

Rounding out the top five tonight were Kevin Harvick in third, Michael Annett in fourth and Allgaier in fifth.

Although his car was fast all night, and he won the race, Dillon’s car was found to be too low in post race inspection, penalties won’t be announced until Tuesday, and the race win still stands.

Next week the series will go to Daytona for the second time this season.

Feed the Children 300 results: 

1. Austin Dillon
2. Kurt Busch
3. Kevin Harvick
4. Michael Annett
5. Justin Allgaier
6. Sam Hornish Jr.
7. Brad Keselowski
8. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
9. Elliott Sadler
10. James Buescher
11. Kenny Wallace
12. Danica Patrick
13. Reed Sorenson
14. Cole Whitt
15. Ryan Blaney
16. Brad Sweet
17. Mike Bliss
18. Joe Nemechek
19. Johanna Long
20. Josh Richards
21. Jeremy Clements
22. Jason Bowles
23. Tayler Malsam
24. Jamie Dick
25. Erik Darnell
26. Eric McClure
27. T.J. Bell
28. Tanner Berryhill
29. Jamie Mosely
30. Brian Scott
31. Mike Wallace
32. Timmy Hill
33. Denny Hamlin
34. Danny Efland
35. Morgan Shepherd
36. Kevin Lepage
37. Scott Riggs
38. Tim Andrews
39. Chase Miller
40. Josh Wise
41. Blake Koch
42. Jeff Green
43. Scott Speed

Mark Schafer (38 Posts)