Speaking recently with Bob Pockrass of Fox Sports, NASCAR Cup Series star Kyle Busch opened up about the pressure Austin Dillon faces driving the No. 3 car for Richard Childress Racing (RCR)– a car made famous by the late Dale Earnhardt.
While Busch admitted the topic hasn’t come up in conversation with Dillon, his RCR teammate, he made it known that Dillon wants to go out and carve out a name for himself.
“No, that has not come up in conversation,” Busch said. “It’s been more all about competition-related and things like that. The conversations related to him and his grandfather’s number — obviously, yes, it was Dale’s number, but it was Richard’s first — I can kind of see all of that and how that’s gone on. But to me, he wants to be known as Austin Dillon and wants to go out there and show the world he can do it.
“And I think there’s been a lot of races this year where he’s been really fast and just hasn’t come through to get the finishes they deserve.”
Dillon, the grandson of RCR owner Richard Childress, is in his 10th full-time season behind the wheel of the No. 3 Chevy. Winless on the season, Dillon sits 29th in the points standings after making the playoffs and finishing 11th last season.
Kyle Busch sums up 1st season with RCR
Busch, meanwhile, is enjoying a fine first season with RCR. He sits behind only William Byron in the points standings and has three wins to his name through 19 races. The 2015 and 19′ Cup Series champion summed up his first season with RCR while talking with Pockrass.
“It’s gone about what I thought,” Busch wrote. “I guess the three wins is probably a little bit ahead of where I thought we would be. But some of the consistency that I’ve not brought to the team of speeding on pit road, or just issues on the racetrack, incidents on the racetrack, mistakes [I’ve made] have been a lot. And that’s kind of set us behind.
“The team and I have really pushed through and powered through many of those to be able to get good finishes on days that maybe we weren’t really seeing the potential for a good finish. If we can clean that up, we can be better than what we are right now. But I think halfway through our first year, we’ve been strong. And it’s been nice to work with Austin and Richard and Randall and all the guys to continue to push and evolve and see any areas of weakness to work on.