HAMPTON, Ga. — Ty Dillon becomes the second driver to fill in for the injured Tony Stewart this season, taking over the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 14 Chevrolet for this weekend’s Folds of Honor/QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
It will be just the ninth NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start for Dillon, a regular in the XFINITY Series for Richard Childress Racing.
“I think everyone wants to see Tony in this car,” Dillon acknowledged Friday morning at AMS. “With those unfortunate circumstances, I was able to be in the car this weekend, which is good for me to get the experience in such great equipment. I can’t thank them enough for the opportunity.”
Stewart, a three-time Sprint Cup champion and co-owner of SHR, remains on the sidelines after fracturing the L1 vertebra in an off-road accident Jan. 31. It is not known when he will be cleared to return to competition. He is scheduled to retire from full-time Sprint Cup competition at the end of the season.
Brian Vickers filled in for Stewart and the team in last weekend’s season-opening Daytona 500, finishing 26th.
Dillon is an optimist but also understands the task ahead of him.
“I have high expectations for this weekend,” he said. “… Mike (Bugarewicz, crew chief) and I went to lunch and we talked about our goals. He’s a rookie crew chief who’s been in the garage for a long time and won championships.
“The main thing is that we want to finish the race. That’s the first thing — we want to finish the race and bring the car back in the same condition that we brought it here. With what Stewart-Haas can bring to the track as far as race cars and equipment right out of the gate, we ought to be able to finish on the lead lap and in the top-15, top-10 being a bonus. We have our goals set and want to show people what we’re both made of. I think we’ll have a good opportunity to do that.”
In his eight previous starts, Dillon’s best result (14th) came last season at Michigan.
Two years ago, he finished 25th in his Sprint Cup debut, which also came at Atlanta, and was third in last year’s XFINITY Series race.
“I really like this track. I love that it falls off and it’s getting a little rougher,” he said of the aging 1.54-mile track. “The surface is worn out. I ran a Cup race here two years ago — it was a different time of year … and I learned a lot.
“I really love how these things fall off and it really suits my style. I’m more of a long-run guy at most of these places. The biggest challenge for me is that I haven’t run this new aero package at all. Coming here with that new package is going to be tricky. A lot of that is going to quicken my learning curve by driving the Stewart-Haas No. 14. I know … the guys are going to give me the best equipment possible. I’ll have a lot of great teammates that know what’s going on and be able to help me out.”
Whether or not he will return for future starts in the team’s No. 14 hasn’t been announced. It’s likely, but Dillon said the focus for now is on this weekend’s efforts.
“This whole process has been day-to-day,” he said. “We’ll see but right now we’re going to focus on doing the best we can here in Atlanta and go forward from there.”