Austin Dillon’s Day Shortened by Mechanical Issue at Auto Club Speedway

NASCAR XFINITY Series – Drive4Clots.com 300
March 21, 2015 – Auto Club Speedway-Fontana, CA

Due to an issue in the engine of the No. 33 Ruud Chevrolet, Austin Dillon and the Richard Childress Racing team finished 38th at Auto Club Speedway on Saturday afternoon. Dillon and the Ruud team concluded Friday afternoon practice on top of the leaderboard before qualifying seventh for the 150-lap affair on Saturday. Once the green flag waved on the field, Dillon remained within the top 10 of the running order despite battling tight-handling conditions. Crew chief Nick Harrison called the 24-year-old driver to pit road during the lap-32 caution period for four tires, fuel and a round of chassis adjustments to combat Dillon’s handling issue. A quick stop by the Ruud pit crew allotted Dillon the sixth spot for the ensuing restart. Diving to the inside line, Dillon went three-wide for position before noticing his Chevrolet lacked power on lap 47. The Welcome, N.C., native brought the No. 33 machine to pit road for diagnosis, at first, then the garage where the team confirmed a broken part in the engine, relegating them to a 38th-place finish.

After that restart, I didn’t feel like we were running with as much power as we had all weekend. I told Nick (Harrison, crew chief) I didn’t have any power. I hate it for these guys, we had a fast car. They’ve worked hard all weekend and this isn’t the finish they deserve. We’ll take it back to the shop and figure out what happened and come back in Texas.

Start – 7, Finish – 38, Laps Led – 0, Owner’s Points – 5