Previewing the RCR driver's sophomore season in the XFINITY Series
Team: Richard Childress Racing No. 3 Chevrolet
Rank in final 2014 standings: Fifth
Wins: 1 (Indianapolis Motor Speedway)
Strides: In his first full season in the series, Dillon scored his first victory, first pole (he ended the year with three) and earned 24 top-10s. Never lower than fifth in the points standings, he was only 12 points out of the top spot after 20 races and as high as third with just four races remaining.
The 22-year-old, second in the Camping World Truck Series points in 2013, proved a quick study in his initial Nationwide campaign, meshing well with veteran crew chief Danny Stockman and the No. 3 RCR team. All seven of his top-five finishes came during the second half of the season, and came on a variety of track layouts, from the 2.5-mile IMS oval to the tight, short 0.533-mile Bristol.
Setbacks: Dillon and his team were rarely dominant, leading double digit laps on only two occasions – at Indy (24) and Kentucky (155).
Although he had just one DNF (Did Not Finish), it occurred late in the year as he was attempting to remain in the thick of the title battle. A 30th-place finish at Charlotte Motor Speedway dropped him to fifth in the standings with just three races remaining.
Quoteworthy: "It's not very fun being the first one called up at the banquet; I wanted to be the last one up there that gives the speech and have all my guys here. That's kind of my attitude. I'm going to let this be a little bit of fuel to the fire as far as (2015) and I'm going to work hard to be better … and make sure I can get up on that stage."
What's next: No changes in key personnel for the No. 3 team as it looks to improve upon last year's fifth-place points finish, although RCR strengthened its XFINITY Series program during the off-season with the addition of former championship-winning crew chief Todd Parrott. Now the organization's competition director, Parrott helped guide Dale Jarrett to the 1999 premier series title and has 31 wins atop the pit box.
No longer one of the new kids on the block, Dillon says he expects improvement both from himself as well as his team.
"I've got to cut out a lot of mistakes, just have to be sharper all around as far as a driver, and also as a team we have to be better, hold ourselves to a little bit higher standard now that we're not rookies," he said. "We're very capable of winning this championship; we showed it at lot of points in the year, that we could win races and beat the best guys in the series. It's time for us to do that consistently and win the championship."
Dillon, who made his first two NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts this past season with Circle Sport Racing, is scheduled to attempt to qualify the team's No. 33 entry in the 2015 Daytona 500.
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