When the 2023 season began, Richard Childress Racing seemed to have fielded a strong team. The prodigious Kyle Busch teamed up with team owner Richard Childress’s grandkid Austin Dillon. Despite not qualifying for the playoffs in his 10th full-time season with the team, Dillon had already secured 6 top-10 finishes over the year when he went to race in Texas last weekend. As he raced with the purpose of adding to that tally, a mishap with his wheel spoiled all his hopes.
With the racing promotion unveiling the on-track highlights of Texas in the Race Hub’s Radioactive series, the exact moments in which Dillon’s race ended came to light.
Austin Dillon expresses frustration with Richard Childress Racing’s #3 crew
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Members of the Childress family currently take up a lot of space in the garages at RCR. Austin runs the #3 crew, his brother Ty Dillon races for the team in Xfinity, and their father Mike is the general manager. Austin’s journey to the Cup Series wasn’t just that of someone born with a silver spoon. He had to carve his way to the Cup Series by winning the Truck and Xfinity Series in 2011 and 2013, respectively. Getting into the fray of the Cup Series in 2014, he has managed to hold his car thus far, despite not making a remarkable impact.
With his hopes of turning 2023 his year running downhill, he would have hoped to bring a few good finishes in the playoffs. But that hasn’t been very yielding either. At the Texas Motor Speedway, it was a loose wheel that turned out to be a foe for him. Running in the 42nd lap of the 267-lap race, he was from P10 behind Aric Almirola, when his wheel detached from the #3 Chevy. His spotter Brandon Benesch announced that the tire had flown off, and Dillon could be heard saying, “Why in the f*** did y’all not say anything before I get into turn 3? His crew chief tried calming him and responded, “It looks like the wheel’s broke, but we did not see anything in here. We’ll talk about it, obviously.”
As the tire bounced off the field, the first caution of the race was flagged and Dillon’s day ended way too early. As the debris was cleared off the track, Richard Childress’s other team which still had some luck going on for it, went on with the race.
Watch Story: Kyle Busch Shares His Feelings About Encountering Former Boss Joe Gibbs Amid Difficulties With Richard Childress
Can Austin Dillon still make something out of 2023 with his #3 team?
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Austin Dillon currently stands at the 29th place in the driver standings. Texas was his 11th finish outside the top 30 this season. While that might be a record of its own making, the season has been riddled with failures for the driver. What’s surprising is that Texas is a track that Dillon has already won once before. Back in 2020, he had edged past then-teammate Tyler Reddick by a narrow margin of 0.149 seconds to claim the victory. Not able to repeat the same magic again, spoke to the media after the race and let his frustration be further known.
Answering a question about the accident, he said, “Yeah. We had a loose wheel. It stinks. It’s kind of been the way our year has gone. I didn’t really think it was a loose wheel, but it was really loose, which could have given me a bit of a hint. But I got to turns 3 and 4, you can just see the wheel comes off (…) It’s unfortunate.”
Revealing that he had a slight tinge of a warning before the wheel went off, he tried being a bit positive. Expressing that he would go back to work with the No. 5 team, he assured that he was going to try and get some wins for the #3 Bass Pro Shops Chevy team. The upcoming race at Talladega is a place where he has found better success in his career. The coming weekend will prove whether luck favors him over the others. Let us know what you think his chances are at the fastest track on the land.
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