Austin Dillon and the No. 3 team earned a hard-fought, 14th-place finish at Bristol Motor Speedway last weekend in the Food City 500. The race proved to be a challenge from start to finish, though Dillon and his team grinded out a top 15 finish.
“What a battle at the last great coliseum today,” Dillon said. “Our SYMBICORT® (budesonide/formoterol fumarate dihydrate) Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 was pretty good throughout Friday and Saturday, but we knew we needed just a little bit more in order to have a shot on Sunday. My crew chief, Danny Stockman, and the No. 3 team made a few setup changes for the race that didn’t work in our favor, unfortunately. Sometimes you have to take a gamble, and it just didn’t pan out in this case. Even though we didn’t have the best-handling car, we were able to maintain and stay on the lead lap. It was a war of attrition, really, just staying up there. At one point in time we got the car decent, even though it was really tight. Towards the end of the race I hit the wall because we got the rear too free. It damaged our car a little bit. We tried to get some track position back, but it didn’t work out. All-in-all, for what we had, I’ll take a 14th-place finish.”
Austin Dillon has been successful at Richmond Raceway recently, finishing sixth at the track just last season. Looking forward to this weekend’s Toyota Owner’s 400, Dillon spoke about the recent improvements to the raceway and what he expects to accomplish at the track this year.
“I think Richmond Raceway has done a really good job moving the facility forward,” noted Dillon. “It’s nice to see what a lot of the tracks on the NASCAR schedule are doing in terms of improvements. It puts us in competition with other sports that have impressive venues. Richmond Raceway is one of those venues that I enjoy going to now because of the additions that they have made to the track facility-wise. As far as racing at Richmond Raceway, in the past Richmond has not been one of my best tracks. I’ve qualified well there and ran well for a little while, but always seemed to struggle adjusting the car throughout the race. Last year, Richmond Raceway was a bright spot for us. We finished sixth the second race there and raced inside the top-10 the entire race. I was really pumped after last year to see what we were able to do because that was definitely an Achilles heel for me in the past. I had to get over it mentally because it beat me up pretty hard for a while. Now, I love going to Richmond Raceway. We figured something out. We’ve found a setup that works, so I’m pumped to get to Richmond.
The Toyota Owner’s 400 will be will be televised live on Saturday, April 13 at 7:30 p.m. Eastern time on FOX. It will also be broadcast live on the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Kyle Mohan debuted his new American Ethanol Mazda RX8 last weekend at Formula Drift Long Beach – the first round of the Formula Drift season. Prior to this season, Mohan competed in a much smaller Mazda MX5, and was excited to debut the larger build this year that is designed to give him more control on the track. The Long Beach event was sold-out, and Mohan’s aggressive new car design was an eye-catcher for the crowd of roughly 20,000 people. A small electrical glitch cost Mohan the chance to advance past the Round of 32 in the bracket-style competition, but he is confident in the car for the remainder of the season. The next Formula Drift competition is on April 25 in Orlando, Fla.
Last week American Ethanol teamed up with Richard Childress Racing (RCR) to unveil our 2019 Darlington Throwback paint scheme, and diecast models of the sleek design are available for preorder!
The “Black Gold” throwback pays homage to one of Richard Childress’ iconic paint schemes from the 1970’s in celebration of RCR’s 50th anniversary this year.
In 1995, due to the to the popularity of the original paint scheme, Lionel (formerly known as Action Sports) released a limited-edition Black Gold No. 3 diecast with 5,004 units available.
*Note – the expected delivery date for the diecasts is October 2019.
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