Daytona: Ty Dillon race report

Ty Dillon Earns Pole Award, Finishes 11th in ARCA Race at Daytona

Ty Dillon earned his second career Menards pole award and gained valuable experience en route to an 11th-place finish in Saturday's ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards race at Daytona International Speedway. The 18-year-old grandson of Richard Childress, driving a No. 41 University of Northwestern Ohio Chevrolet, posted a 185.533 mph/48.509 second lap during qualifying on Friday, making him the fastest qualifier in the ARCA Racing Series since 2001. Dillon led the 41-car starting field to the green flag for Saturday's 200-mile/80-lap race. He settled into the second position until attempting to pass using the outside line on lap 17, a move that relegated the Chevrolet to a position midway through the field. Just one lap later, a car spun directly in front of Dillon and made slight contact with the left front fender of the No. 41 Chevrolet. Dillon promptly drove down pit road, where RCR's No. 31 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team pit crew made a series of repairs to the vehicle. Restarting the race in the 37th position on lap 22, Dillon was able to work his way up to 11th before the checkered flag flew.

TY DILLON:

"The car in front of me started spraying oil, and then he got a little bit loose off of the corners, so at that point I made the decision to try and go around him on the outside, but nobody went with me and I got shuffled to the back of the field. Looking back, if I would have just waited a couple of more laps we had that caution flag come out and it would have turned out much differently. But, we learned, and that is what is most important. It was a wild race. There were a couple of crashes that I had to steer through. You just learn from things like that."

-source: rcr