NASCAR
Twenty Years After Earnhardt’s Daytona 500 Win, Austin Dillon Takes 3 Car Back to Victory Lane
A little over a year removed from Austin Dillon’s Daytona 500 win, let’s take a look at its place in history. Seeing the 3 car go back to Daytona 500 victory lane twenty years after Dale Earnhardt’s win was certainly special. TSJ101NASCAR was able to interview racing figures who were at Daytona on that historic day in 1998. This article will compare and contrast both Daytona 500 races won by Austin Dillon and Dale Earnhardt.
All things were right in the sporting world on February 15, 1998. After twenty years of trying, 7-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Dale Earnhardt finally won the Daytona 500. On the twenty-year anniversary of Earnhardt’s historic triumph, the 3 car was in Daytona 500 victory lane once again, with driver Austin Dillon.
Reverence of the 3 in NASCAR
Perhaps no car number has more significance in NASCAR history than the 3. Dale Earnhardt and his Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet team won six championships and 67 races with this number. Earnhardt and Childress were among the greatest dynasties in all of stock car racing. However, this team faced unbelievable tragedy with Earnhardt’s untimely passing in the 2001 Daytona 500.
Kannapolis, North Carolina’s own Dale Earnhardt was thought by many to be NASCAR’s best driver ever. Nowhere was his talent on display more than at Daytona International Speedway. Due to the pack-racing and drafting seen at this track, air plays a huge role in how one car passes another and leads the race. Earnhardt was always said to be able to ‘see the air.’ Thus he won multiple different races at Daytona across all racing series. However, in his first 19 attempts, Dale was winless in the biggest event at Daytona, The Great American Race. Dale had come within just laps of winning the Daytona 500 in previous years. But bad luck always struck the 3 team until 1998.
3 Comes Back with New Face at RCR
After Earnhardt’s demise, RCR chose to honor him and retire the 3 car. The 3 did not race in the Cup Series until Childress’ grandson Austin Dillon brought it back in 2014. Bringing the 3 car back to the Cup Series was controversial. It stirred some longtime fans the wrong way. However, it was only appropriate for Austin Dillon to pilot it.
Dillon, 28, from Lexington, North Carolina, is the oldest grandson of team owner Richard Childress. Long before RCR fielded a 3 car for Earnhardt, Childress himself drove the 3 car. He raced as an independent driver-owner based out of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The 3 is forever linked in racing history with both the Childress family and the Earnhardts. It is fitting for the next generation of either family to add to this number’s legacy.
And add to the 3’s legacy Dillon would, by winning his first NASCAR Cup Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 2017, the Coca-Cola 600. Prior to his move up to the Cup Series in 2014, Austin had plenty of success with a 3 on his door. In the developmental NASCAR Truck Series and Xfinity Series, Dillon won both championships in a span of two years.
The 2017 Coca-Cola 600 was the first time a 3 car won a Cup race since Earnhardt’s last victory. Dale’s 76th and final win came at Talladega Superspeedway in 2000. It was a timespan of 592 races between the 3 car’s trips to the winner’s circle.
Growing Up in the NASCAR World
In victory lane photos from Earnhardt’s Daytona win in 1998, you can see a 7-year-old Austin Dillon, with younger brother Ty. To see Austin grow up in the spotlight of a racing family was certainly something special.
“It’s been a pleasure to watch Austin grow. We started following him when he was a little kid in go karts. We watched him race on little local tracks,” said FOX8 Sports Director Timmy Hawks. “You never think ‘this kid is going to be a Daytona 500 champion someday,’ but he did it,” said Hawks. “He kept developing his driving skills and got the right opportunities, and won the Daytona 500. It’s been nice watching his career grow throughout the years.”
Austin Dillon Stuns World in Daytona 500
Coming into the 2018 Daytona 500, few considered Austin Dillon to be a favorite for the win. To say that Dillon’s win was surprising and an underdog moment would be apt. Like with many Daytona races in recent memory, this race was about surviving big crashes and staying in the lead pack.
On the last lap however, Dillon was running in 2nd, in a position to capitalize. Going down the backstretch, he made contact with leader Aric Almirola, who tried blocking the 3’s charge. In a controversial moment, contact with Dillon spun Almirola into the turn 3 wall. Dillon went on to win the 60th running of The Great American Race.
Though with the same team and car number, the similarities between the Daytona 500 in both 1998 and 2018 do not end there. “What I thought was cool about Austin’s win in the 2018 Daytona 500 is that he didn’t hesitate, didn’t lift, on the last lap,” said longtime Performance Racing Network host Mark Garrow.
“When it came to roughing up Aric Almirola and taking the checkered flag with a little restrictor plate magic, he conjured it up when it meant the most. In that sense, his take-no-prisoners attitude at the end was very much like Earnhardt,” said Garrow. “No doubt, Dale would have been proud of that move and tickled Austin drove that 3 back into victory lane in the way he did. Both victories also brought a big smile to the face of Richard Childress.”
How Daytona Win Impacted RCR’s Outlook
Austin’s 2018 Daytona triumph changed the future outlook at RCR as a whole. “Honestly it was good and bad. Making the Playoffs in the first race is great, no question about that. But I think what it did was kind of let us down,” said RCR Vice President of Competition Andy Petree.
“We weren’t as sharp for a lot of the season, because we had that berth, we weren’t pushing hard. There were some things that I felt like actually hurt us a bit. My message to the team a third of the way into the year was ‘we need to race like we didn’t win the Daytona 500, we need to race with that hunger again.’ We kind of got back to that right before the Playoffs started, and we had a really good last 10 races with Austin. It’s great to make the Playoffs in the first race but it can have a negative effect.”
In the words of CBS Sports/NASCAR On Fox broadcaster Mike Joy, the 1998 Daytona 500 win was “Twenty years of trying, twenty years of frustration,” for Dale Earnhardt and the 3 team. In 2018, it was “Twenty years of trying, twenty years ago,” as Austin Dillon commemorated the anniversary of the 3 car’s momentous victory by returning RCR to Daytona 500 glory.
What’s Next for Austin Dillon?
While some argue that no driver’s career can compare to Dale Earnhardt’s Hall of Fame stats, Austin Dillon is trying to make his own path in NASCAR, using the number 3 as the ultimate tribute to the legend. Dillon and RCR are now only in their sixth season together in the NASCAR Cup Series, and the sky truly is the limit for the 3 team’s potential return to greatness.
Thanks for following along in our look back at Austin Dillon and his Daytona 500 win. Stay tuned to TSJ101NASCAR all season long for updates, predictions, and more from the world of NASCAR.
Follow the writer: @PeterStratta
