Richard Childress’ Grandson Was Left Short-Handed in the Cup Series by Spire Motorsports

During the 2023 NASCAR Cup season, Ty Dillon joined Spire Motorsports, alongside Corey LaJoie. Unfortunately, he did not perform particularly well during the season, only having a best finish of 11th. Since then, the ex Richard Childress Racing driver has lost his Cup seat and is plying his trade in the Truck Series at Rackley WAR.

Recently, LaJoie opened up about Dillon’s miserable 2023 campaign. As it happened, there were a number of changes within the organisation, and the #7 driver blamed that for his misfortune. Those changes included a crew chief change and a number of crew members working part-time. In essence, LaJoie admitted that Spire Motorsports was used to running as a one-car team, and was not used to operating a second car.

This was definitely not a dig at Ty Dillon himself

No one is suggesting that Ty Dillon is a bad driver. The younger grandson of Richard Childress has recorded seven Top 10 finishes in the NASCAR Cup Series during his career. That includes a best finish of third place at the 2020 Yellawood 500 at the Talladega Superspeedway. Around that time, he was racing for the now defunct Germain Racing, driving the #13 car. LaJoie was seemingly referring to the fact that Spire Motorsports was only able to focus on one car, so they were short-handed. As a result, Ty Dillon lost out badly.

Reporting the same, racing journalist Peter Stratta tweeted, “‘I didn’t think @tydillon got a good shot at it,’@CoreyLaJoie says about his time in the @SpireMotorsport 77 given crew chief turnover and part-time workers last year. Lajoie says Spire was a one-car team operating as a two-car group.”

Dillon only picked up one more 10th place finish in 2022 for Petty GMS Racing. That was before his performance began petering out and he didn’t breach the Top 10 in the Cup Series since then. Evidently, Spire Motorsports lost patience and he was moved to the Truck Series. Now, the 31-year-old has to prove himself in that series, if he wants to get back in the Cup Series.

Why did the Richard Childress driver move down to the Truck Series?

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Prior to joining Rackley W.A.R., he told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, “It’s been awhile since I’ve competed in the Truck Series but I was very successful there. So for me, at this stage of my career, I want to get back to winning races and battling for championships and getting that confidence back. I still want to run Cup races. I feel like every race car driver wants to compete at the highest level but to go back and race for a team that is new and hungry, wanting to get to that next level of winning races, and hopefully I can be the driver to take them there.”

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The 2024 Truck season is his third full-time season since 2012 and 2013. Around that time, he finished fourth and second in the respective seasons, while driving for Richard Childress Racing. This year, Dillon will be aiming to fight for the title and hope that he puts in a good enough performance to return to the Cup Series.