Just a few weeks remain in the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season and Ty Dillon and the GEICO team continue to impress. Entering Talladega, the group has crafted a string of solid finishes that has garnered the attention of folks throughout the sport. Germain Racing has proven itself as a contender on restrictor-plate tracks since day one of their Cup Series program, so when they unloaded the No. 13 GEICO Camaro ZL1 for practice on Friday they were focused on continuing the trend of success they’ve experienced.
Dillon honored his grandfather, Richard Childress, with a throwback paint scheme over the weekend. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Childress making his first NASCAR premier series start at Talladega Superspeedway, his youngest grandson, Dillon, sported the same green design that Childress did in the fall of 1969.
When Dillon hit the high-banked superspeedway in Talladega on Friday, he wasted little time in showing his hand. His GEICO Camaro was fast, as evidenced by his speed at various points in practice. He ended up 16th fastest in the opening practice session and would later qualify 21st for Sunday’s 500-mile race.
Rain would cause the postponement of Sunday’s race after 57-laps of action, but not before Dillon and his No. 13 GEICO Camaro ZL1 charged into the top-10. He was fast from the onset and seemed to navigate the field with relative ease. Once the rain began blanketing the Talladega area at the conclusion of the first stage, NASCAR officials opted to move the balance of the race to Monday afternoon.
The fans showed up in full force when the NASCAR Cup Series restarted the race the next day on lap 58. When the 1000Bulbs.com 500 returned to green flag conditions, Dillon started his journey from the 19th position. He picked up where he left off, quickly gathering up 11 positions and moving into eighth place in just the opening two laps. A brief seven laps later, on lap 72, Dillon had the GEICO Camaro in the fifth position and charging. After two late-race cautions slowed the field, the race all came down to one final green flag with only two laps remaining in the 188-lap event.
Dillon and the No. 13 GEICO Camaro were in the third position when the race entered the final two laps, but with only one other Chevrolet in the top-10, he found himself all alone and without help heading into the final lap. A hard-charging Dillon was unrelenting and dashed to the finish line where he collected a 10th place finish and scored Germain Racing’s third top-10 result of the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season.
“On the last restart, I knew we were in a little bit of trouble with only a couple of Chevrolets up front,” Dillon said. “I needed a push in the outside line as far as I could to try to get us in position where we were in second or third and I just couldn’t get any help from behind. We had a nice, big run there at the end, but couldn’t really do a whole lot with it. We got another top-10 finish for our GEICO team, which is always good, especially at the superspeedways.”
Germain Racing will now pack up and head to Kansas for race number 32 of the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season.
Ty Dillon and the No. 13 GEICO Camaro ZL1 will hit the track at Kansas Speedway for the weekend’s opening practice session on Friday, October 18th, at 4:05 PM (ET). Qualifying will follow on Saturday at 1:35 PM (ET).
The Hollywood Casino 400 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race is on Sunday, October 20th, and it will be televised live on NBC beginning at 2:30 PM (ET). The Motor Racing Network (MRN) will carry the live radio broadcast, along with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.
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