MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
CHICAGOLAND SPEEDWAY
CAMPING WORLD 400
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
JUNE 29, 2019
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOW UNIVAR SOLUTIONS CAMARO ZL1 Media Breakout Session Highlights:
INAUDIBLE
“I definitely think there is. I think you are going to see guys ringing the top and guys that can run the bottom. At this place, as more rubber gets laid down, you are just trying to constantly fight for clean track. If you can find clean track, there is a little bit of an advantage there.”
YOUR BROTHER (TY DILLON) WAS JUST SUGGESTING THAT NASCAR CHANGES SOME IDEAS, MAYBE ADD A CAUTION WITH STAGE BREAKS. DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEAS IN THAT AREA?
“I think it’s racing. I think it has been pretty good. You have races that go green and you have races that don’t, so it gets interesting either way.”
DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEAS WITH WHERE THE SPORT CAN GO?
“I love sporting events, I’m all about sports. I go to them all of the time. I feel like our sport is one of the best sports out there. I feel like we’ve made a lot of changes over the last couple of years and I feel like we just need to keep building our brand and get it to where it needs to be.”
HOW DO YOU LOOK AT THIS RACE?
“This is one of the best tracks that we go to all year. It’s pretty amazing. The finish you saw last year kind of speaks for itself and I feel like you will see one of those again on Sunday. It’s cool because the tires wear out and that is the type of tracks I like coming to because it creates good racing and passing. As the tires fall off, it creates some really good passes here and if your car keeps turning, you’ll have some good forward drive.”
HOT AND SLICK, THAT MAKES IT GOOD HERE?
“Hot and slick is always fun. I think that’s what we always come back to with growing up racing short tracks in the summer. It makes for some good racing for sure.”
“I think having the new asphalt, there is a little bit of grip there. If you catch it in the right place and your car is tight, it’s not a bad thing.”
RCR HAS EXPERIENCED SOME STRUGGLES THIS YEAR, BUT YOU’VE BEEN QUALIFYING VERY WELL. WHAT IS IT GOING TO TAKE TO HAVE THOSE QUALIFYING RESULTS RELAY INTO THE RACE ITSELF?
“We’ve had some really good races too, but the last couple of weeks have been really hard for the 3 Team. We had a wreck at Michigan, wreck at Pocono, and a wreck at Charlotte. Three wrecks in a row in a season looks way worse and people are way down. You just have to go get a good finish. We’ve had cars capable of good finishes. If we would have finished where we should have in those three races, we would be in the top sixteen. We won a stage at Michigan. I made a move going into Turn One, it didn’t really work out and William Byron got into me. It’s a couple of decisions here and there that you wish you could have back and some of them are out of your own doing. Pocono, we just got turned and wrecked. We’ll work hard to dig ourselves out of the hole, but this could be a great turning point for our season and we are looking at it like that. We’re going to go out there, score stage points and try to win the race.”
DO YOU HAVE ANY THOUGHTS ON THIS BEING THE LAST TIME DAYTONA WILL BE HELD DURING INDEPENDENCE DAY WEEKEND?
“It’s a little different. July 4th has always been Daytona weekend in my past, so it’s a little different for sure. We’ll be down there having a good time and treating it like it’s July 4th weekend. Daytona is just a good place to do it at; the fireworks are beautiful and everybody has a good time at Daytona.”
“I feel like we did a lot of things during July 4th weekend growing up, but Daytona was definitely always been there. I remember when Cracker Barrel was the sponsor and all of the July 4th fireworks. I feel like we were there a lot during July 4th growing up.”
THIS TRACK COULD BE A TURNING POINT FOR YOU. IS THIS THE TIME IN THE SEASON WHERE IT BECOMES URGENT?
“Definitely, it’s been urgent. Points are so close, so you can’t give up any. We aren’t trying to by any means these last couple of weeks. A win is in my thoughts. We need to get a win or string together some amazing races coming down to the end of the year to put us in a good spot in points.”
“I think it’s desperate for teams from the start because there are only a certain amount of races before the Playoffs start and I think that’s why the intensity is so good in our sport right now. You see a lot of intensity out there and people making moves. Every race has had some intense moves in it and people moving each other to put their cars in position.”