Richard Childress has seen a lot of his drivers win at the Brickyard including Dale Earnhardt, Sr., Paul Menard and Kevin Harvick. Saturday’s win for Richard Childress Racing was even more special – his grandson, Ty Dillon, and his RCR crew kissed the bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway to celebrate Dillon’s first Nationwide Series race since moving into the division this season.
A call by Danny Stockman that got Ty Dillon out front after a caution with 29 laps to go in the Lilly Diabetes 250, and a push from Matt Kenseth on the restart, propelled Dillon to the front. Dillon was starting side-by-side with Kyle Busch on the restart on lap 77 where Busch had been leading. Busch commented in a post-race press conference that he slipped and Ty Dillon had the chance to drive underneath him and he couldn’t catch him.
“If I could have been out front – I probably could have held him off,” stated Busch.
Dillon was able to keep the momentum to keep Busch several car lengths away. Busch started to close in a tad in the closing laps, but Dillon had tamed the field. It was his first victory in 31 NASCAR Nationwide starts and he also won $100,000 in the Dash 4 Cash bonus.
“It really hasn’t fully sunk in yet, but the emotions are incredible. It’s incredible,” said Dillon in a post-race interview.
He may have won the race, but Dillon didn’t dominate. Kevin Harvick, who is starting in the first position in Sunday’s Brickyard 400, led the most laps and looked to have handily found the quickest way around the track. He was in the top portion of the running order and claimed a top four finish.
Regan Smith was able to lead four laps to narrow the championship points lead. He came into the race seven points behind rookie Chase Elliott in the standings. With Smith finishing ahead of Elliott by two positions on the track, the points lead narrowed to four.
The top ten: Ty Dillon, Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth, Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano, Paul Menard, Brian Scott, Kyle Larson, Trevor Bayne and Regan Smith.
The NASCAR Nationwide Series drivers head to Iowa Speedway for the U.S. Cellular 250 presented by New Holland on Saturday, Aug. 2 at 8 p.m. ET.
