Dillon Earns First Cup Victory

By ESPN

Austin Dillon can't avoid seeing or hearing from those who don't believe he should have a ride in the NASCAR Cup Series.

To some, he's just the team owner's grandson at Richard Childress Racing who wants a crew-chief change when things don't go his way. Spoiled and whiny. Those feelings certainly were portrayed on social media posts in the week leading up to the Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Dillon earned his first Cup victory early Monday morning as he stretched his fuel mileage with the calm words of new crew chief Justin Alexander in his ear.

"Haters gonna hate," Dillon said. "They keep sipping that Hater‑Ade. ... I didn't look at that. I'm just glad we proved 'em wrong. It feels pretty dang good."

Alexander had replaced Richard "Slugger" Labbe on Monday, as Dillon was 22nd in points and the two fiery personalities appeared to have lost the momentum they had built after making the playoffs in 2016.

"The only thing about Justin is I never worked with an engineer, a calm guy," Dillon said. "He's [got a] totally different background than what I'm used to, working with. He fits. It's cool. This week was relatively just smooth. We didn't argue. We talked about the race car.

"That's what I needed. I needed someone that wanted to teach me, talk about it, not tell me what was wrong with it. It felt good to actually work together and get to the point where we are now."

Dillon actually did have an argument in the last week -- with his grandfather and team owner, Richard Childress.

"We had an argument about our race cars performing, like face‑to‑face, full on argument with your grandfather," Dillon said. "We made it through it and we're in Victory Lane this weekend.

"It feels damn good. ... It feels amazing to be able to have a good conversation with him, for him to listen to me, and take what little advice I know, because he's been doing this for so many years, to give me enough respect to just hear me out, because I'm a hardheaded man. I'm not going to lie."

Dillon won in his 133rd start -- 25 starts fewer than it took Ricky Stenhouse Jr. to win his first Cup race earlier this year. Both Dillon and Stenhouse won Xfinity Series titles but found their roads in Cup not as productive.

It's not like Dillon didn't know how to win -- he had 15 victories combined in Xfinity and trucks to go along with titles in those two series.

"[My grandfather] gives us everything you need," Dillon said. "It's frustrating when you suck. We had to get our stuff together. We still got work to do. We did our job."

Dillon did have a hand in the crew-chief change.

"When you have a great group of people around you, you work with the drivers," Childress said. "Austin called me. We talked about it. He told me he had made his mind up. He knew that was the right thing to do."
Xfinity Series: Solid Christopher Bell debut

Christopher Bell had a more than solid series debut as he finished fourth Saturday at Charlotte.

Bell, driving for Joe Gibbs Racing and heavily supported by Toyota (Toyota vendors JBL and SiriusXM were on his cars the past couple of weeks), is running a handful of Xfinity races this year while competing for the Camping World Truck Series title.

He spun after contact with Ryan Reed on the third lap of the race, but he methodically worked his way to fourth by the end. He was the only non-Cup drivers in the top six as Ryan Blaney won the race, followed by Kevin Harvick, Austin Dillon, Bell, Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski.

"I'm thrilled," Bell said. "We had to fight through a lot of adversity."

Bell sits second in the truck standings. He has two wins while series points leader Johnny Sauter doesn't have any. He had to rally in the truck race a week earlier at Charlotte for a solid finish, and he found the Xfinity car easier to handle in traffic as far as dirty air but he didn't find it easy to pass.

"I spun out whenever I tested here so just tried to get through the week without making any huge mistakes," said Bell, who started seventh. "After we got spun out ... I was pretty confident that we would be able to work our way back up there, but every run I'd have to start at the tail and get back to about 18th before I stalled out.

"I knew it was really good, but knew I needed to be in the right position to get up there."

He was patient and eventually pit stops and being in the right spot on restarts allowed him to gain spots.

"It's nice to know I can do it and we can run back up through the field, but I just have to put it all together," Bell said. "It sucks having to come back up through there. Your day is a lot easier when you can stay up front, you're in cleaner air, the car drives better so I just have to execute and do a better job at the beginning of races and not make these mistakes."
Camping World Truck Series: Ryan Truex feeling good

Ryan Truex finished fourth in the May 19 races at Charlotte, and he hopes that will be a boost going into his "home" track this upcoming week at Dover.

"I sniffed the lead, which is good," Truex said. "We're getting better every week. A sixth and fourth [in the past two races] -- now we need second and a win."

Truex sits ninth in the season standings but with Red Horse Racing closing its doors, two top-10 drivers (Timothy Peters and Brett Moffitt) have uncertain futures.

The Hattori Racing Enterprises team is using Joe Gibbs Racing engines, and Truex credits crew chief Scott Zipadelli with being a calming influence during the race.

"He's the perfect coach," Truex said. "He does his own thing. That's what I really like about him. He doesn't worry about anybody else. He keeps me motivated, he keeps me pumped up and keeps me calm."