The Dillon Brothers

The future has a lot in store for Richard Childress' grandsons Austin and Ty Dillon. Throughout the history of NASCAR racing family members have often competed against each other. We've seen father and son, brothers on seperate racing teams, you name it. In the years past we have witnessed duos like the Burton brothers, the Waltrip brothers, the Labonte brothers, the Wallace brothers, and the Busch brothers battling amongst the best stock car drivers in the world. Now it is time to introduce the Dillon boys.

We have approached a period in NASCAR where Richard Childress has a difficult time staying on top of his competition. When you have power house teams like Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing assembling 4-car teams, adding on sponsors, and working daily with thousands of employees on their race cars your luck is eventually going to run out. Then along came Austin Dillon.



Austin displayed a tremendous amount of talent and determination in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driving the #3 truck for Childress Racing and winning the Championship in his second Truck series season in 2011. The plan for Austin's NASCAR career appeared to be two years in the trucks, two years in the Xfinity Series, and then on to the big stage with the big boys. After finally earning that elusive first Xfinity Series Championship in 2013 Austin was all signed up and ready to go drive the #3 Chevy for his grandfather. However making the transition from the Xfinity Series to the Sprint Cup Series has been known to be extremely difficult. For Austin it was no different. After finishing 20th in the final standings in Sprint Cup competition in 2014 in his heart-pumping rookie year, Austin has elected to participate in more of the Xfinity Series events to help provide him with a better understanding on how his Sprint Cup series car will feel during the Sprint Cup race. Keep in mind the Xfinity series race is always held one day before the Sprint Cup race unless mother nature steps in and forces everyone to wait until Monday.



Kyle Larson was involved in the majority of the Xfinity Series events last season and getting that extra experience in another race car at the track over the weekend certainly gave him the edge he needed to win 2014 Rookie of the Year. Now that Austin is attempting the same task this season look for him to climb his way into the Top 10 more than he has before and make a run at the Chase for the Sprint Cup. He currently sits 27th in the standings but a couple top 5 finishes will absolutely change that for the better. I think the confidence and momentum for Austin after winning the Xfinity series Las Vegas event and snagging his first Top 10 finish on the Sprint Cup side of things at Bristol will only increase and keep us on our toes.


After an exciting battle right down to the wire for last year's NASCAR Xfinity series championship and finishing fourth in the standings respectively, Ty Dillon has proved to us once again that he is getting better and better after every race. I would like to take this time to point out that Ty has never had such a successful beginning to an Xfinity series season than he has in 2015. After finishing 3rd in the Xfinity Series' version of the Daytona 500, one spot in front of older brother Austin, Ty has continued to put himself in position to win races and as a result has walked away with 3 Top 5 finishes in the first 8 Xfinity Series races. With an average finish of 7.6 he has shown major improvement at a very young age.

I have a feeling that Ty Dillon is sick of being the Dillon brother that is yet to win a Championship in one of the three main series' in NASCAR. Just like his older brother Austin, it appears the career plan for Ty is two years of racing the trucks and two years or more in the Xfinity series. Ty has been fortunate to receive the "hand-me-downs" from Richard Childress that Austin once piloted. Despite being in a fast truck, Ty failed to capture the Camping World Truck series championship in both of his full-time seasons. Now that his older brother has made it to the big stage in the Sprint Cup series, Ty is in his second full-time Xfinity series season and has shown tremendous racing abilities each and every week so far. Because of his consistent top 10 finishes, Ty finds himself the current points leader and has realized the only two drivers that might catch him are Chase Elliott and Chris Buescher.



Ty has the talent and the ambition, but it will simply take time. Championships do not develop over night. Halfway through the 2014 Xfinity series season Ty Dillon made history when he won the Xfinity series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and got to kiss the bricks on the same weekend as Jeff Gordon. Indianapolis opened in 1909 and has an incredible legacy behind it. What a moment that was for this young man. It is spectacular moments like that where you find that extra boost of courage and determination which leads you towards only bettering yourself as a driver. We are 8 races deep into the 2015 NASCAR Xfinity series season. My prediction is Ty Dillon will do the impossible and hold off Chase Elliott, Chris Buescher, Darrell Wallace Jr, and Regan Smith to capture the Championship. Look out Busch brothers! There is a new brothers duo coming your way.

Photos by: LAT Photographic
Written by: Tyler McMurter