Austin Dillon enters the NASCAR playoffs "with nothing to lose"

While Dillon got locked into the playoffs thanks to his May victory at Charlotte Motor Speedway, it’s only been in the last month that his No. 3 Richard Childress Racing team has been able to produce results on the track that could replicate that win.

Dillon has finished seventh or higher in two of the last four races. He ended up 21st Saturday night at Richmond (Va.) Raceway after getting involved in a mid-race incident with Danica Patrick.

“I think we’ve got a great team. I think we have a great solid group of guys and we have been working hard all year to try and get more speed in our race cars,” Dillon said. “I thought Darlington was a good place for us (he finished fourth), Atlanta and Charlotte, obviously, so we have had some good runs this year. 

“Hopefully, the last 10 races of the year we have some more good runs. Three tracks I enjoy to go to are Chicago, New Hampshire and Dover, so that is the first round.”

Dillon advanced to the playoffs last season for the first time based on points and just missed advancing to Round 2 by one point. He finished 14th at Chicagoland, 16th at New Hampshire and eighth at Dover.

“So, we’ve got some good tracks obviously in the playoffs and we need to take advantage of that as much as we can and put ourselves further than we did last year,” he said.

Dillon said having to compete against teams like Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Larson with multiple race wins means his team needs to take chances the others might avoid.

“I mean we’ve got nothing to lose. I feel like we are on house money this year. We fought and scratched and clawed for everything we’ve got and some of these guys have won a lot of races (and) have got some bonus points, so we’ve got to go for it,” he said. 

“We will be aggressive on plays and strategy and see what we can do with that.”