Rookie of the Race: Austin Dillon

By:
On:
In: NASCAR Cup Series News

The 2013 Nationwide Series Champion has had quite the adventurous start to the 2014 season. Starting off the year by putting the iconic No.3 on the pole for the Daytona 500, Austin Dillon has had three impressive runs to start off the season.

Sitting 13th is points with one top-10 finish; Dillon is making this Rookie of the Year battle seem easy. Although it’s still very early in the season, it’s hard to ignore his good runs in the first three races.

A ninth place at Daytona, 24th at Phoenix and now a 16th at Las Vegas, it looks like Dillon can handle almost any track thrown at him. With Bristol this coming weekend, it will be interesting to see how this Rookie fares.

Dillon started forth in Sunday’s Kobalt 400 and although he never really made any headlines during the race, he was the only Rookie driver able to stay on the lead lap. The No.3 Cheerios Chevrolet was fast all weekend and Dillon used his good qualifying position to get himself another top-20 finish.

Cheerios Racing, General Mills and Dillon also did some good away from the track as well this weekend. General Mills donated 8,000 pounds of food to Three Square Food Bank, Southern Nevada’s only food bank. That food will help feed more than 7,000 individuals fighting hunger in Nevada.

Dillon made quite the impact in Nevada and can look on to Bristol feeling optimistic of another good finish. This young driver is off to a great start in 2014 and with a strong team behind him, he is one of the favorites to win the coveted Rookie of the Year title.  Can he come out on top in Bristol? He has two top-5 finishes in the Nationwide Series. Tune in Sunday to find out.

Katie Copple
Latest posts by Katie Copple (see all)
Post Views: 100