Dillon "awestruck" by Chase advancement, knows he's an underdog

He gave out a holler when he exited his No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet on pit road, then proceeded to hug and high-five every crew member who showed up at his car.

His crew chief, Slugger Labbe, was last to arrive. “I’m really proud of you, bud,” Labbe said.

No, it wasn’t a win, but advancing to the second round of his first NASCAR Chase is “probably” the highlight of his career right now, Dillon said.

I am still awestruck because things like this just don’t happen. 

Austin Dillon

“I’m proud of my team for building a fast race car. RCR, I thank all you guys back at the shop for working countless hours on these race cars. We were able to make it to the next round and that means so much for our team,” he said.

“It feels good. It’s time to knock some more of these guys out because we’ve got this opportunity and I want to say that we’re going to be the underdog in this next round, so let’s go do it.”

A career season

This has easily been Dillon’s best season in the Cup series, but he has still been a hit-or-miss battle at times. He has yet to win but was able to qualify for the 16-driver Chase based on points.

Now heading to the second round, he is advancing while three drivers who won races to qualify – Tony Stewart, Kyle Larson and Chris Buescher – have been knocked out of title contention (Jamie McMurray also eliminated).

Dillon’s situation was somewhat dire entering Sunday’s race and last weekend’s performance at New Hampshire – which included wrecking a car in practice – didn’t exactly instill a lot of confidence.

Once he got through the second green-flag run in Sunday’s race, Dillon said he knew he had a car capable of running up front, or even winning. But he needed to stay a bit conservative to ensure he would advance.

“This is probably one of the fastest race cars we’ve had all year. And, I wanted to get more, but I knew what was at stake,” he said. “I feel like we had a little bit of a right-front issue that we were worried about, so I didn’t want to push it too hard.

“I am still awestruck because things like this just don’t happen. I am proud to be going on to the final 12 and having race cars that are capable of moving on. I have three really solid tracks coming up and I am going to drive the wheels off of it and have fun.”