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17-year-old Dillon to race Camping World East schedule
By David Caraviello, NASCAR.COM
March 20, 2008
10:55 AM EDT
type size: + -At first glance, it looks like the genuine article -- a racecar, mostly black, with a white No. 3 on the side written in that all-too-familiar script. But upon further inspection, the sponsor is different. Streaks of red and gray paint radiate from the front end. And the series decal just under the driver's side window is not that of NASCAR's premier division, but the Camping World East regional tour.
Still, the similarities are impossible to miss. The vehicle looks very much like the one driven by seven-time champion Dale Earnhardt during the peak of his career at Richard Childress Racing. Yet the sponsor isn't Goodwrench, but Garage Equipment Supply. The owner isn't Childress, but former Busch driver Andy Santerre. And the driver isn't the Intimidator, but Austin Dillon, Childress' bright-eyed, 17-year-old grandson.
The No. 3 has been placed into a reverent semi-retirement in the seven years since Earnhardt's death in 2001. It's made sparing public appearances -- most notably, in two Busch races driven by Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 2002, in a 2003 program at Lowe's Motor Speedway honoring past Cup champions, and at this year's Daytona 500 in celebration of the 10th anniversary of Earnhardt's victory. It's been absent from regular NASCAR competition, something that will change April 19 when Dillon opens the Camping World East (formerly Busch East) season at Greenville-Pickens Speedway.
Bo Timmons/Andy Santerre MotorsportsAustin Dillon"I've run it since I started [racing]," Dillon, a junior at Forsyth Country Day School in North Carolina, said of the number. "My grandfather and I talked about it when I started, and we knew it was going to be a big thing as long as I progressed with it and kept on with it. It was my grandfather's number at one point in time, but I know the man who made it famous was Dale. I'm going to appreciate that, too. We're hoping we get good feedback from the fans, and we'll keep it if the fans like it."
Childress, who drove the No. 3 himself from 1976-81, had no plans to return the number to competition after Earnhardt's crash. That changed when his grandson came to him and asked to use it. Before long, young Austin was running Legends and Bandolero cars bearing the No. 3. He eventually moved up to dirt late models, recording three wins and 25 top-10s in 34 starts last year. This year he's scheduled to run the full, 14-race Camping World East schedule, in a car fielded by Andy Santerre Motorsports operating under the RCR development umbrella.
"It's a big step," said his father, RCR general manager Mike Dillon, a former driver himself. "[Dirt late model] is so competitive. It's hard to beat those guys, with the horsepower you have and the kind of car control you have to have. He's done some testing already in the asphalt car. The other thing, he's learning how to race. He's learning how to pass people. That's the biggest thing you see nowadays is guys who don't know how to pass. They can run fast, but they don't know how to pass. It's a shame. A lot of them are fast, but then they get to somebody, and they either wreck them or wreck themselves."
Austin competed in more traditional sports until he caught the racing bug from little brother Ty, a 15-year-old who will take over the menacing-looking black No. 3 dirt car that Austin drove last season. When he was younger he would travel to see his father drive on the Busch circuit. During Speedweeks he competed in a number of dirt races at Volusia Raceway, making up for the missed school with one-on-one classes that allowed him to get ahead and maintain his A-B average. After all, college is on the horizon, perhaps at Clemson.
But there's no questioning his career goal. Like his dad and grandfather before him, Austin is driven to drive.
"My family's all been around it. I've been around it my whole life," he said. "We used to travel with my dad when he was racing. He raced the Busch Series, and we wanted to try it, me and my brother both. We just waited a little while. I've always played different sports. Now racing is just an add on, I guess. I love it. That's what I want to do, is race."
And right now, he likes racing the No. 3. Austin said he usually receives positive feedback from fans, particularly once they understand his relationship to Earnhardt's former car owner. He seems to have a firm grasp of the significance of the numeral on his car door.
"He should," said Mike, who raced five full seasons on the Busch circuit, and has one career Cup start, at California in 1998. "He's been around it the whole time, and we try to instill in him what it means. He's got to recognize the fact that it is what it is because of what Dale and Richard did with it. He's just fortunate to get to run it."
And he's just old enough to have known the Intimidator himself. "He was in Victory Lane with him a few times," Mike said. "Both boys were. He was a young kid, but he remembers it. We've got some pictures of it, too."
Should the younger Dillon advance through the Camping World East circuit -- a division that's produced the likes of Ricky Craven and Martin Truex Jr., and is the training ground for Joe Gibbs Racing prodigy Joey Logano -- natural questions will arise about whether he'll take the No. 3 with him. His grandfather says there are no firm plans, although he rules nothing out. His dad says winning at the regional level has to come first.
And as for Austin himself? "We're thinking about it," he said. "It's kind of a big deal. We don't know yet. We'll just see how everything goes."
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