NASCAR CUP SERIES: COOK OUT 400

August 11, 2024

Austin Dillon

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by the winning driver, Austin Dillon.

Folks may have a few questions for Austin. We'll start...

Q. Have you seen a replay of the last lap?

AUSTIN DILLON: No.

Q. I don't know if you need to, but can you take me through it, what you were kind of thinking or trying to do, if what happened was what you were actually trying to do or...

AUSTIN DILLON: I mean, I was just trying to get to him. I went into turn three in fifth gear, and drove in, tried to get in loose, got him up the track. I got the car downshifted, and the car actually turned pretty good when I did that. When I was coming back left, the 11 was coming. That was just kind of a reaction.

The 22 was trying to get him loose, but the 11 was more of just a reaction. I wasn't lifting at that point because I was more looking at where the 22 was. When the 11 came across, it was just reaction.

Q. So did you mean to hit the 11 or...

AUSTIN DILLON: I mean, it was reaction. That's the best way I can say it. You know what I mean? Like, meaning to in that moment? What do you think the sport science would be? It was super fast. So the 'mean to' was definitely to move the 22. The rest just was whatever my body did.

Q. I asked both R.C. and your senior crew chief this. Was this your best performance in whole from start of the weekend through the race in your Cup Series? They tended to say yes.

AUSTIN DILLON: I would say yeah. I mean, to fire off P1 in practice. We didn't panic ever throughout the weekend. We made solid adjustments, made adjustments that were meaningful for our car.

I feel like we were the best car on the yellow tire. That's what got us able to get to the front. I mean, we were the best car when it got dark on the yellow tire. That's point-blank what it was.

I passed Joey and the 11 clean, and drove a straightaway away. Then with two to go, lap cars wrecked. On the red tire I'd say we were probably a fourth- or fifth-place car. A little too tight to take off.

It was a situation where we had a shot to go to Victory Lane and change our whole entire season.

Q. Some people are saying that NASCAR should intervene here and take the win away because of how this unfolded. Your reaction to that?

AUSTIN DILLON: I've seen Denny and Joey make moves that have been running people up the track to win. This is the first opportunity in two years for me to be able to get a win. I drove in there and kept all four tires turning across the start/finish line.

To me, I've seen a lot of stuff over the years in NASCAR where people move people. It's just part of our sport. You know what I mean? Remember when Joey said 'short-track racing'. He knows what it was.

In your shoes, what would you do?

Q. Unvarnished aggressiveness, good for NASCAR where you're willing to crash a guy to win?

AUSTIN DILLON: I don't know, man. It's just the rules of the sport, right? It is what it is. Wins get you into the next round. I did what I had to do to cross the start/finish line first.

As far as good for the sport, I heard we were trending No. 1 on Twitter right now. People must be viewing it right now, so that's good.

Q. Coming into this race, you were 32nd in points. You're up to 13th, in prime position for a Playoff spot. Talk about just today's race and the season-defining win for you.

AUSTIN DILLON: Just proud of our guys, the never-quit attitude. Truthfully really proud of our pit crew. They crushed it tonight. We haven't given them opportunity to have that much pressure on them. I guess they had an average of a 9.7 pit stop. They came to play today. They gave me the opportunity to be where I needed to be on the last lap to make it happen.

So yeah, my pit crew did an awesome job. Team did. The car was capable of winning the race. That was our one shot, I feel like, we've had all year. We were able to go to Victory Lane.

Q. Regardless of the outcome, when you look at the big picture, your team has had a lot of struggles this season, and you have had a lot of changes. How big is it to put your team in a Playoff situation when it's all said and done considering everything that's happened this year?

AUSTIN DILLON: Man, I tell you, about a hundred to go, 80 to go, it was very hard for me to not get emotional in the race car. It's been rough the last two years.

For me to see the front and race with two of the best guys in the sport and prove that I can do it when given the opportunity, it was hard for me not to go to, like, get upset in the car.

I had to keep my shit together, to tell you the truth. This stuff ain't easy. I won championships in the Truck Series and Xfinity Series. I'm sure there's many people out there that have wanted my head to get out of the 3 car for a long time. I'm fortunate I have a great family, great partners at RCR. When given that shot, you just got to take it.

Like I said, it was hard for me to keep it together with, like, 80 to go. I kind of got my shit together. Denny was right there and he was running a good race. He kept running, trying to run the line that I was running.

If you notice, my line is a lot lower than most on the frontstretch here. I enter hard and low and keep the car rotating around that yellow line. It seems to help me in the long run. I kind of found that in 2020. We had a car capable of winning that way. I sped on pit road.

Was able to not make any mistakes and get to Victory Lane.

Q. A lot of your crazy victories throughout your career, the 500, then the Xfinity race in 2016 where Kyle cuts down the tire and Suarez runs out of gas, would you consider this to be one of the wildest wins of your career?

AUSTIN DILLON: Has to be, you know? I don't know why God puts me in certain situations to have crazy finishes, but I'm thankful for it. Sorry for all the ones that probably don't like it, like me. I love you either way.

It's a part of our sport. I'm thankful for the sport so we can entertain a lot of people.

Q. You're no stranger as a long time stockcar driver to controversy. Also a student of the game. With all that in mind, how do you roll into Michigan next week, knowing there might be eyes on you or there might be people who want to talk to you, then you take the green flag, and there could be consequences? Do you now feel the weight knowing you got to carry that for however long?

AUSTIN DILLON: Feel it every week when you're running 34th or 15th or 10th, no matter what. It's just the pressure that we are put under to keep a job, keep our partners happy, keep our teammates, our company rolling.

That pressure never goes away. It's a weight that everybody carries in this garage. Not one guy out there that's running in these cars doesn't put a lot of pressure on themselves to perform.

I'm going to enjoy the moment. I got my baby girl to Victory Lane today. First time she's been to Victory Lane. I told Justin when he came to crew chiefing, I got one goal, I want to get back to Victory Lane with Blaize, my second kid. Ace was able to go to Victory Lane at Daytona. Getting her to Victory Lane means the world to me.

Yeah, I'm satisfied.

Q. When you're getting your teeth kicked in a little bit, you've said you've got to work on this, make it better, there's a high, another low, does a win like this possibly change the trajectory of your career, revitalize you to go from 32nd to the top 16? Does it remotivate you?

AUSTIN DILLON: I tell you, my motivation has never wavered in two years. I've probably put more work in the last two years than I have my entire Cup career. Going to the simulator every week at Chevrolet, working with Josh Wise, working with my guys, trying to understand how to communicate the best I can.

As far as can it revitalize my career? I don't know. I think that's God's plan, whatever happens next. I think outside of the race car, my life is in the best place it's been in a really long time. That's good.

I think a good example is Martin Truex. He's a Hall of Fame race car driver, retiring this year at 34. His career stats look very similar to mine. From that point on, he was on a rocket ship forward, moving forward.

Maybe it is a projectile. If it isn't, I'm going to support RCR in any way possible and keep racing as hard as I can.

You know one thing: when I'm in the race car, I'm going to give it 100%, and you can't question that.

Q. The final restart, there was some surprise you didn't take the outside. Any regrets on that looking back?

AUSTIN DILLON: I thought the 22 kind of left a little early, to tell you the truth. He beat me to the line. He kind of had the edge going anyways. I don't know. I think the last two races have been won from the bottom. That's what they told me.

The reds seem to add more grip on maybe the outside. That might have been a shot. But I know Joey also usually is 'eight tires better than four'. He might have moved me up the track. You know what I mean?

He was really aggressive when I was racing him earlier in the night. Just kind of pinning my line down, just racing me hard. I know either one of those two guys, given the opportunity to bump, move, it can change. I've seen 'em both do it.

It's one of those things where the bottom was the best guarded place probably.

Q. You said you drive the 3 car. The guy who made the 3 car famous won a few races the way you won tonight. Your grandfather comes on the radio immediately and says, I'm proud of you. Was that in the back of your mind, a situation like this, thinking about you're driving the car that Dale Earnhardt made famous, for the guy who made Dale Earnhardt what he was?

AUSTIN DILLON: It never crossed my mind to tell you the truth. It happened that way. Yeah, I seen a lot of races with Dale moving guys, pissing people off. A lot of people booed him throughout his career. I think Kyle Busch is the closest thing we've had to a Dale Earnhardt Sr.

I'm not that. I'm Austin Dillon. I'm just going to try hard. When I get an opportunity, I'm going to give it everything I got. That's literally what it was that last lap. I didn't have anything else in my mind. Didn't matter what anybody said to me did.

That was the one shot I felt like I had, and I thought I did a good job of getting it in there about as deep as I had all night and not spinning out myself.

Q. Earlier in April you made a crew chief change to bring back Justin. What has he brought back since April? What did he bring back in this race?

AUSTIN DILLON: There's just a calmness to Justin. He does a very good job of getting the best out of me I think. I trust him. He trusted me. The camaraderie between the two of us.

He knows that I am trying to do the most. Sometimes he's got to tell me, Hey, get out of the trailer, shut up, it's our turn to go to work.

Over the years I've just learned to trust him. Our engineer Joel, all the guys are doing a great job.

Q. You talked about being kicked in the teeth, people questioning whether you should be driving. Have you ever had moments of doubt yourself? What do you do when those moments hit you?

AUSTIN DILLON: I don't have any doubts. I mean, excuse me. You have doubts. You go through stretches where it's like, Man, am I letting everybody down around me?

Just got to stay prayed up, stay in your faith, keep the people that are closest to you around you telling you that you got it, you can do this. We've seen you do it before, we just got to put you in the right situation.

Yeah, when it gets hard, you just got to lean on the good people around you and the good Lord above.

Q. What changes have you made? Your crew chief talked about changes. What are the changes that were made going into this stretch here?

AUSTIN DILLON: Tell you the truth, I don't know. I enjoyed my vacation. I went to the simulator session like we do every week. It was a good simulator session.

As far as Keith Rodden moving into a competition role, I think that's been good. We've gotten some good things going in the right direction I think. I think you'll see more of that to come hopefully.

Q. You said you did what you had to do. Is there anything that's out of bounds on a final lap with this format, with the way it is?

AUSTIN DILLON: I don't know, Bob. I got in there, I got Joey loose, I downshifted to come back left. The 11 is coming across. I'm just wide open at that point when he comes across. Trying to get to the start/finish line first.

I don't know, Bud.

Q. A few minutes ago you mentioned the 2020 race here, you were in position to win. What are other losses that stick in your mind in the Cup Series? I can think of a few at Michigan.

AUSTIN DILLON: Michigan we've had some good cars in the past. One I got almost flipped upside down by Brad Keselowski at the start/finish line, wrecked.

I don't know. The biggest one would be Charlotte, Coke 600. I made an awesome move on a restart, full (indiscernible) into three and four. Three-wide off of four. Got hooked across the start/finish line. That's a great example.

It's racing. I was going for it that night, the Coke 600. I end up head on into the fence. Whether somebody meant to do is it or not, it's racing, shit happens.

I've been on the opposite end of the stick multiple times in my career. Obviously I just mentioned one. Head on into the fence a lot of times, wrecked. It happens in this sport. It's aggressive. It's what it is.

Q. There's a lot of stuff going around online right now about some radio communication that happened on your channel. I think it was your spotter, don't know for sure, said, Wreck him, wreck him. Don't know if it was about Joey or Denny. By your facial expression, you didn't hear that or were conscious of that?

AUSTIN DILLON: Dude, at that point I'm elbows up, holding the throttle down, just trying to get to the start/finish line literally. I am sideways off of four 'cause I'm already three-quarters of the lane up the track, hammer the gas. I'm just looking at the start/finish line. That's it. I ain't hearing shit at that point, you know? Your eyes turn red. You see red, you get to the end of the race.

Daytona, last lap when I won there at the 500, your eyes see red. There's one thing on your mind: get to the start/finish line first, period. No matter if anybody came on the radio, it doesn't matter. Like, you have one job to do, it's to get to the start/finish line first.

That maybe can answer your question, Bob. A lot of people lose their jobs because they don't get to the start/finish line first.

Q. A couple years ago, the Daytona win, that was the situation where Reddick was locked in already, you needed to get that win. Does the focus now shift to getting Kyle in these Playoffs, getting that win streak to continue for him?

AUSTIN DILLON: Heck yeah. We got to get the 8 car rolling. Kyle is a big part of our organization. He's got some good tracks left: Michigan, Darlington. Whatever it takes to get the 8 car in would be huge.

We're going to get after it the best we can.

THE MODERATOR: Austin, congratulations on the win tonight. Good luck next week in Michigan.

AUSTIN DILLON: Thank you.