Dillon enjoying sons' success in Trucks, ARCA

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- These days, the proudest papa in the NASCAR garage isn't one of the many fathers with newborns or babies on the way. It's someone whose two sons are fully grown.

Mike Dillon, general manager at Richard Childress Racing, has been able to watch both his sons win big races in the past week. Last Friday in Las Vegas, 20-year-old Austin Dillon earned his second career victory in the Truck Series. And Thursday at Kansas Speedway, 18-year-old Ty Dillon won an ARCA race in only his second start on the circuit.

"It's been a lot of fun. The couple of wins lifted us up after all the penalty and that stuff," said the elder Dillon, also the spotter for Clint Bowyer -- recently hit with a 150-point penalty from NASCAR -- on the Cup tour. "It's been a lot of fun for everybody in our family."

Mike Dillon said his sons' 2011 racing plans have already been worked out. Ty will run the ARCA tour, and make a few Truck starts toward the end of the season. Austin will run another full-time campaign in the Trucks, and also make an undetermined number of Nationwide starts in a car fielded by Kevin Harvick Inc.

Austin currently stands fourth in the Truck standings, and Mike Dillon believes his son can contend for the series championship next year. "That would be the goal," he said. "We've had a few accidents and things happen this year that have been out of his control. Without them, I think he'd be right in there for it this year."

Ty's victory Thursday came in his first event on a 1.5-mile track. "It doesn't surprise me he ran that good, because I know he can do it," Mike said. "But to come in here and put a package together that quick, and never having been on a mile-and-a-half, never been on a big track, and to win? That's pretty good."

At least Mike got to witness that victory in person. Because of his duties with RCR, he's had to watch both of Austin's Truck wins on television. He was in Dover during the Las Vegas race, and was on the telephone with his oldest son soon after the conclusion of the event.

"We go crazy," he said, "like anybody would."