Austin Reed Dillon (born April 27, 1990) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 3 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Richard Childress Racing. He is the grandson of RCR team owner Richard Childress, the older brother of Ty Dillon, who competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, and the son of Mike Dillon, a former racing driver who currently works as RCR's general manager.
Dillon is the 2011 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion, the 2013 NASCAR Nationwide Series champion, and the winner of the 2018 Daytona 500. He also won the Rookie of the Year award in both series in the year before he won the championship (2010 and 2012, respectively). He also holds the record for most consecutive poles in the Xfinity Series with four. Since 2022, Dillon has also been the general manager of the Carolina Cowboys, a Professional Bull Riders team.
Racing career 2005–2007: Beginnings Dillon began his racing career in Bandolero and Legends. A year later, he started dirt track racing at dirt late model racer Dale McDowell's school.
2008: Camping World East Series Dillon was the 2008 Rookie of the Year in the NASCAR Camping World East Series. He ran the full schedule in the No. 3 Chevrolet initially driving for Andy Santerre Motorsports; he eventually moved under his grandfather's Richard Childress Racing banner after four races. Dillon scored one win at Greenville-Pickens Speedway, one pole and ten top-ten finishes in thirteen races.
2009–2011: Camping World Truck Series
He made his first Camping World Truck Series start at Iowa Speedway, driving the No. 3 truck. This was the first time that the No. 3 had appeared in any of the three major series since Dale Earnhardt Jr. used it in the Busch Series back in 2002.
Dillon was supposed to start the Mountain Dew 250 at Talladega Superspeedway during the 2009 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season, but the truck failed inspection, thus his time was removed and he failed to qualify for the race. Dillon would drive the No. 3 truck full-time in 2010 for Rookie of the Year, with sponsorship from Bass Pro Shops.
Despite crashing out early at Daytona, Dillon got his first career pole at Texas Motor Speedway in June and finished third, leading twenty laps. On July 11, Dillon scored his first career NASCAR victory in the Lucas Oil 200 at Iowa Speedway, winning a Truck Series race in a truck wearing the No. 3 for the first time since Bryan Reffner won for Team Menard in 2000 at Texas Motor Speedway. He ended the season with two wins and seven poles, earning him Rookie of the Year honors.
In 2011, Dillon scored his first win of the year at Nashville Superspeedway. Dillon scored his second win of 2011 at Chicagoland Speedway, beating Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch. After rain shortened the season finale at the Homestead-Miami Speedway, Dillon was crowned the 2011 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Champion. He also won the 2011 CWTS Most Popular Driver Award. In 2012, he moved up to the Nationwide Series full-time, driving the No. 3 Chevrolet for RCR.
2011–present: Cup Series and Xfinity Series Dillon made his first career start in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series on October 9, 2011, in the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway. He finished 26th in his No. 98 Camping World Curb/Agajanian Racing Chevrolet Impala.
On November 4, 2011, Richard Childress Racing announced that Dillon would be moving up to the Nationwide Series in 2012, driving the No. 3 that Dale Earnhardt made famous, with sponsorship from AdvoCare, American Ethanol, and Bass Pro Shops.
2012
Dillon competed in the Sprint Cup Series on a limited basis in 2012, starting at Michigan International Speedway in June, driving the No. 33 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing, starting 21st and finishing 24th.
On June 29, 2012, Dillon recorded his first Nationwide Series win at Kentucky Speedway; he dominated the race by leading all but 8 laps and won by over 9.8 seconds over second place. However, NASCAR officials announced the car had failed post-race inspection because the rear ride heights were too low.
Dillon also participated in one race in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series at Circuit Gilles-Villeuneuve in Montreal in August 2012. Dillon finished seventh while driving the No. 4 car for Fitzpatrick Motorsports.
2013: Nationwide Series champion Dillon announced in August 2012 that he would continue to drive full-time in the Nationwide Series for 2013, with Advocare as the primary sponsor for the full season, along with running seven Sprint Cup Series races that year, including the 2013 Daytona 500, where he qualified eighth, but crashed late in the race, relegating him to a 31st-place finish. In January 2013 it was announced that some of Dillon's Sprint Cup races that season would be in Phoenix Racing's No. 51 Chevrolet.
Dillon returned to the Truck Series for the inaugural Mudsummer Classic at Eldora Speedway, leading a race-high 63 laps, and won after a green–white–checkered finish. The truck, the trophy and the famed piece of dirt track are on display at NASCAR Hall of Fame. Later in the year Dillon substituted for the ailing Brennan Newberry in the Truck Series race at Chicagoland Speedway.
In early August 2013, it was announced that Dillon would substitute for Tony Stewart in the No. 14 Stewart–Haas Racing Chevrolet at Michigan due to Stewart's leg injury; he would also drive the car at Talladega Superspeedway in October. In Dillon's run at Talladega, he performed well during the event, and was running in the top five for most of the day; at the white flag, Dillon was third behind Jamie McMurray and Dale Earnhardt Jr. and was about to give Earnhardt Jr. a push for an attempt to make a winning pass when he was turned by Ricky Stenhouse Jr., slammed the backstretch wall, then was sent airborne when struck hard in the rear bumper by Casey Mears.
On November 16, 2013, Dillon won the NASCAR Nationwide Series Championship with a twelfth place finish in the season finale at Homestead–Miami Speedway. Dillon's series championship was unusual because he did not win any races during the season; this marked the first time in any of NASCAR's three national series that a season champion went winless.
2014: Full-time in Cup Series On December 11, 2013, it was announced by RCR that Dillon would drive the No. 3 Chevrolet in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series with Cheerios and Dow Chemical Company as the primary sponsors. It would be the No. 3 car's first Sprint Cup appearance in thirteen years.
During 2014 Daytona 500 qualifying, Dillon clinched the pole position with a speed of . This was the fourth time that the No. 3 was on the pole for the Daytona 500.
After a long streak of bad finishes, Dillon rebounded with a top-five in the 2014 Coke Zero 400. Dillon ended the 2014 Cup season as one of only two drivers to have been running at the finish of every race during the season, the other being Jeff Gordon. He finished second in the rookie of the year standings to Kyle Larson.
2015
In the first half of the 2015 season, Dillon struggled in the Cup Series, scoring only one top-ten finish (tenth in the Spring race at Bristol). In the Xfinity series, however, Dillon scored two wins, the first coming at Las Vegas and the other at Charlotte. In both races, he dominated leading the most laps. In the summer return to Daytona, Dillon had an up and down weekend. In the Xfinity race, he won after his teammate and the dominant car of Brian Scott crashed out of the race late in the going. In the Coke Zero 400 on July 5, coming to the checkered flag, Dillon was hit in the left front tire by the spinning car of Denny Hamlin and from behind by Clint Bowyer, causing him to flip into the catch fence over two rows of cars. The car hit the fence at about 190 miles per hour and came to an almost complete stop on its roof before he was hit again by a spinning Brad Keselowski. Dillon climbed out of the car unharmed, except for a bruised tailbone and a bruise on his forearm, but five fans were injured by flying debris. Dillon was credited with a seventh-place finish.
After a disappointing season, with only one top-five and five top-ten finishes, Dillon closed out the 2015 Sprint Cup season standings in 21st place. However, Dillon did manage to win four Xfinity races, even though he was running only a part-time schedule.
2016: First playoff appearance Dillon competed part-time in the Xfinity Series in 2016, splitting the No. 2 of RCR with six other drivers. On the final lap of the Xfinity race in Fontana, Dillon battled with Kyle Busch, whose car had cut a left front tire, the two making contact as they approached the finish. Dillon's car hit the turn four wall but was able to hang on for the win. Then at the second Bristol race, Dillon won after Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski both wrecked late in the going.
In the Cup Series, Dillon won two Poles, the first coming at Auto Club and the second coming at the second Texas race. At the first Talladega Cup race, Dillon scored a career-best 3rd-place finish after getting caught up in two big crashes. He then also qualified for his first Chase; though he advanced out of the Round of 16, he was eliminated in the following round.
2017: First Cup win
Dillon opened the season with a fourth-place finish in his Can-Am Duel, where he pushed Denny Hamlin past the dominant car of Dale Earnhardt Jr. to win the race.
During an Xfinity Series race at Phoenix Raceway, Dillon was parked by NASCAR for wrecking rookie Cole Custer under caution after Custer slid into Dillon earlier in the race. After being parked, Dillon was not the target of any more penalties.
When NASCAR returned to Martinsville for the first time in 2017, Dillon scored a season-best fifth place outing. This is his first top-five and top-ten finish of 2017. At Texas, Dillon was unable to start the Cup race on the lead lap due to a broken track bar that put him eleven laps down. He finished 33rd.
After the Kansas race, his crew chief Slugger Labbe mutually separated from RCR. Justin Alexander became the new crew chief and started his role at the Open.
After struggling early on in the Coca-Cola 600, Dillon would finally earn his first career Cup Series win after passing Jimmie Johnson, who ran out of fuel on lap 399 and held off Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. It was the first win for a No. 3 car in Cup since October 15, 2000, when Dale Earnhardt won at Talladega.
After the Charlotte race, Dillon would not score another top-five finish in the Cup series until a fourth
place run at the Southern 500 at Darlington. He went to finish a career-best eleventh in the final point standings despite getting eliminated after the round of 16.
In June, Dillon became a color commentator for NASCAR on Fox broadcast of the Xfinity Series race at Michigan.
2018: Daytona 500 win
In 2018, Dillon returned the No. 3 to Victory Lane in the Cup Series. He won the 2018 Daytona 500, after coming from a lap down within twenty laps to go to second on the final lap. He hit Aric Almirola in the right rear after Almirola tried blocking him, sending him into the outside wall. The win happened twenty years after Dale Earnhardt's only Daytona 500 win, and it was also seventeen years to the day of Earnhardt's death. Despite the win and a guaranteed spot in the Playoffs, Dillon struggled to stay consistent throughout the season with two top-fives and five top-ten finishes. He was eliminated in the Round of 16 after hitting the outside wall twice at the Charlotte Roval race and finished the season thirteenth in points.