NASCAR Playoff Panic May Be Just Around the Corner for Austin Dillon

The good news for Austin Dillon and Richard Childress Racing is that they’ve had a handful of legitimate chances to win Cup Series race this year. The bad news is that they’re 0-for-12 and in a slightly worse points position than last year at this time.

The No. 3 Chevrolet team goes into this weekend’s 400-miler at Kansas Speedway with three top 5s (two seconds and a third) and three more top 10s (a ninth and two 10ths) in 12 starts. They’re 13th in points, one position lower than after 12 races last year, although not after the same 12 races.

It’s too early for Playoff Panic to set in, but Dillon knows the feeling is looming just around the next corner.

“We were pretty strong last year (but) kind of got overlooked because we didn’t make the Playoffs,” he said of his grandfather’s company that has won 13 NASCAR championships spread over three series “We were a consistent team all last year, but I feel like we’ve had way more opportunities to win this year. The disappointing part is that we’ve had more bigger catastrophes… getting wrecked at Phoenix (21st), getting wrecked at Atlanta (36th), and blowing up at Daytona (25th) and Bristol (31st).

“We didn’t have those types of bad days at this point last year. We had a couple more average days, but we’ve also had some bigger days with two second-place finishes (Auto Club and Talladega) and a third (Martinsville). We’ve definitely had more opportunities to win.”