Ty Dillon, driver of the No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Boats Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), finished 17th in Sunday’s Folds of Honor 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Sunday’s solid performance capped an enjoyable birthday weekend for Dillon, who turned 24 on Saturday.
“That was a tough race today,” Dillon said after making his ninth career Sprint Cup Series start on Sunday. “I hate that we got a little bit behind early. As much as we improved the car as the race went on, I think we could have run up front. These guys did a really good job today, and I appreciate all their hard work. That was a lot of fun.”
The Atlanta race marked the 2016 debut of a new low-aerodynamic downforce configuration. The package is similar to the ones used at the Kentucky and Darlington races last year. Lowering the downforce on a car makes it harder to drive, which puts more emphasis on driver skill and increases the potential for passing.
The impact of the new package was obvious from the drop of the green flag as the 39 drivers each wrestled a 3,300-pound car at nearly 190 mph through the track’s sweeping turns for 500 miles. Adding to the challenge, new tires were about two to three seconds faster than worn tires, forcing crew chiefs to call their drivers to pit road about every 35 laps to put on new tires.
Despite the increased difficulty, the race ran caution free for the first 210 of the scheduled 325 laps – the longest caution-free start to a race in track history.
That history didn’t play into Dillon’s favor as his No. 14 dropped from 18th to 22nd in the first 50 laps. The blistering pace set by the leaders saw Dillon fall off the lead lap on lap 78. The SHR crew made several adjustments each pit stop to improve the handling. The changes began to pay off; Dillon’s lap times mimicked the times set by the race leaders on long runs, and he climbed back to 19th by lap 115 and in contention for the free pass were a caution to fall.
Unfortunately for Dillon and most of the field, the caution didn’t fall, and he dropped a second lap behind the leaders at the 200-lap mark when only 11 cars raced on the lead lap. The first caution finally came out on lap 210, allowing the field a brief respite before racing resumed for the final 100 laps. Dillon hoped to use the race’s closing stages to regain the lost laps, but with only a caution that sent the race to overtime and the final caution that ended the race, he had little chance to climb higher and finished 17th.
Sunday marked Dillon’s first race with crew chief Mike Bugarewicz, who took over the No. 14 crew after serving as the lead engineer for SHR’s No. 4 team since its inception in 2014. Dillon said the SHR team made the weekend enjoyable.
“It just kept getting better every time I’ve gotten into this Bass Pro No. 14,” said Dillon, who is the grandson of Hall of Fame car owner Richard Childress and brother of Austin Dillon, who finished 11th Sunday. “Mike (Bugarewicz) and the guys made it better and better for me, and it’s made it easy for me to kind of cut out the learning curve here.”
Sunday wasn’t the first time Dillon turned in a good performance at Atlanta. He won his first Camping World Truck Series race on the Georgia track in 2012. He also finished fifth in Saturday’s Xfinity Series race.
Sunday marked Dillon’s second race in 2016. The Welcome, North Carolina, resident drove the No. 95 Chevrolet SS to a 25th-place finish for Circle Sport-Leavine Family Racing in the Feb. 21 Daytona 500.
Dillon substituted for No. 14 regular driver Tony Stewart, whose off-season injury shuffled the driver lineup at the start of the 2016 season. Brian Vickers drove the No. 14 to a 26th-place finish at the Daytona 500 last week.
Dillon said he was honored to fill in for Stewart, who he said was one of his heroes growing up.
“I can’t thank Tony (Stewart) and everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing enough for giving me the opportunity to come out here and do this,” Dillon said. “This was an awesome weekend.”
Stewart, a three-time Sprint Cup Series Champion, underwent surgery after sustaining a burst fracture of the L1 vertebra in an all-terrain vehicle accident Jan. 31 while vacationing on the West Coast. Stewart made a surprise visit late Friday afternoon and stayed for Sunday’s race.
Stewart stayed in constant radio contact with Dillon during Sunday’s race. A timetable for Stewart’s return has not been determined, but he expects to make a full recovery and return to the No. 14 Chevrolet in 2016.
Vickers will return to the No. 14 Mobil 1 Chevrolet March 4-6 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
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