Austin Dillon stole Friday night’s Fast Five 225 Camping World Truck Series race at Chicagoland Speedway from Kevin Harvick, who had dominated the event until the last round of stops.
Austin Dillon’s team gave him quicker service on his last pit stop, and helped him lead the final 14 laps of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Fast Five 225 on Friday night at Chicagoland Speedway. It was the second win this year and the fourth in 45 career Truck Series starts for the Nationwide Series-bound grandson of legendary team-owner Richard Childress.
“This is the biggest win of my career, I think,” Dillon, 21, said in victory lane. “I ran up there, racing with Kyle and Harvick. Harvick was great all night, but (crew chief Danny) Stockman made the call at the end to put us out on two tires.
“That definitely dictated a four-tire call,” Harvick said of the vibration. “On the caution before (on Lap 84) we didn’t take any tires, so we had about 22 more laps on our tires. When you have a vibration like that, you want to win the race, but in the big picture—and the even bigger picture on Sunday (in the first Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup race)—we don’t need to blow a tire and have something happen.
Harvick led the first 39 laps, until making his first pit stop under caution. Kligerman, Dillon, Piquet, Bodine and Busch shared time in front between laps 40 and 69, when Harvick finally regained the point. When he made his last stop on lap 129, Busch, Dillon, Piquet and Sauter again shared the lead. When Sauter made his final stop under green on lap 136, Dillon inherited the lead. He had a huge gap thanks to his quicker two-tire, green-flag stop, and he rode that cushion home during the final 14 laps around the 1.5-mile track near Jolie
As Busch and Harvick battled for the second position, Dillon began to pull away, opening a lead of more than 4.7 seconds over Harvick with seven laps left.
“So when it got to the point of shaking bad enough to where I knew something was changing, I just came in and changed four tires. I knew at that point, they (Dillon and Busch) were going to do the opposite, but we had to change four.”
TOP 10 FINISHERS
1. Austin Dillon, Chevrolet
2. Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet
3. Nelson Piquet Jr., Chevrolet
4. Parker Kligerman, Dodge
5. Kyle Busch, Toyota
6. Johnny Sauter, Chevrolet
7. Matt Crafton, Chevrolet
8. Miguel Paludo, Toyota
9. Jason White, Chevrolet
10. Ron Hornaday Jr., Chevrolet
POINTS LEADERS AFTER 18 OF 25 RACES
1. James Buescher, 621
2. Austin Dillon, -3
3. Johnny Sauter, -6
4. Timothy Peters, -20
5. Ron Hornaday Jr., -47
6. Matt Crafton, -49
7. Joey Coulter, -52
8. Parker Kligerman, -54
9. Cole Whitt, -55
10. Todd Bodine, -65
Next: Loudon, N.H., Sept. 24