Dillon settles for third after leading 155 laps
RELATED: Full race results | Updated series standings
SPARTA, Ky. — From its pole-winning qualifying lap to triple-digit laps led, Ty Dillon‘s No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet was the car to beat in Saturday’s VisitMyrtleBeach.com 300 at Kentucky Speedway. After leading 155 of the race’s 200 laps, the Richard Childress Racing No. 3 looked to have competition only in fellow rookie-of-the-year contender Chase Elliott.
Yet as Elliott’s No. 9 and Dillon’s No. 3 fought side-by-side for the lead, it was Dillon’s RCR teammate Brendan Gaughan who surprised them both by charging ahead.
Brian Scott followed, moving ahead of Dillon and putting the driver with what seemed an ironclad grip on Victory Lane back to third.
“This one definitely hurts,” Dillon said. “I hate it for our Bass Pro Chevy guys. We had the night’s dominant car and it was obvious that we really put it together as RCR and (Earnhardt Childress Racing engines) as a whole this weekend.”
The loss wasn’t much easier for Scott, who earned his best finish of the season with the runner-up effort.
“I think it was a toss-up between Ty and I, and he was a little better — he was able to adjust his car in clean air where we were fighting with dirty air most of the race,” Scott said. “At the end, I was proud of our guys to take four tires. I was surprised more cars didn’t take four tires — we had 50 laps on them and I was fighting a little bit loose … at the end it was too tight, probably needed one more round up on the track bar and we could’ve won this thing.”
RCR ended the night with all three of its full-time drivers in the top three. The finish shows the change the organization has seen since earlier this season, which saw Gaughan outside of the top 10 in all but two of the first 13 races, before his win at Road America. Second-place finisher Scott sat outside of the top 10 in seven of the first nine races this season. While Dillon frequented the top 10 earlier in the year, he didn’t notch his first top-five finish until the 18th race of the season at Chicagoland Speedway.
“We’ve all worked hard, we all realized we were pretty off in the beginning of the year and nobody was happy with it, nobody got complacent with it,” Dillon said. “We fought hard. ECR stepped it up, and so did the guys at the race shop that don’t get the credit; the guys behind the scenes, they stepped it up too.”
Even 22-year-old Cale Conley, who drove RCR’s No. 33 Chevrolet in his ninth Nationwide Series start, finished in the top 10. With the clear addition of speed across the Richard Childress Racing fleet, the final laps at Kentucky came down to strategy, with the No. 3 on two fresh tires and the No. 2 and No. 62 on four fresh ones each.
The race’s eight cautions — several of which landed in the race’s closing 50 laps — nudged both Dillon and Scott out of the running, and Gaughan into Victory Lane.
“I think the series of cautions played against us … ” Scott said. “I think we gave it some good restarts and got trapped on others. I wish I could do it over again, but I’m sure Ty feels the same way, and everybody but Brendan feels that way right now.”
Even without a trophy, Dillon’s performance stands out among his record. His dominance surpassed his previous best of leading 130 laps in a NASCAR national series race in the Camping World Truck Series. His Indianapolis win earlier this year gave the driver his previous Nationwide Series best, with 24 laps out front. Even though it wasn’t a win, Dillon’s finish moved two points closer to Elliott in the points standings, and the driver continues to look forward to the contending for a title.
“We don’t ever give up, we don’t ever let up,” Dillon said. “I think that’s kind of the RCR motto — it starts with my grandfather and spreads through the whole company.”
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