Dillon wins Trucks race in Las Vegas

By foxsports
Published

Austin Dillon raced to his second NASCAR Trucks Series victory of the year, leading the final 35 laps Saturday night at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Dillon, the 20-year-old grandson of longtime NASCAR owner Richard Childress, led 93 of 146 laps on the 1.5-mile tri-oval. Dillon regained the lead from James Buescher on the 112th lap and finished 5.588 seconds ahead of defending race champion Johnny Sauter.

Buescher was third, followed by series leader Todd Bodine, Matt Crafton, Aric Almirola, Brian Ickler, Justin Lofton, Ricky Carmichael and Ken Schrader.

Bodine increased his lead over Almirola to 262 points with five races left.

Dillon became the youngest winner in all three national NASCAR series at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The victory also helped him in the Rookie of the Year race, which he is currently leading.

''This one was cool because I never saw the track before,'' Dillon said.

Dillon's win was a much-needed boost for his family. Earlier in the week, his grandfather and dad, Mike, an executive at Richard Childress Racing, learned their Sprint Cup driver Clint Bowyer was penalized by NASCAR. The infraction dropped Bowyer from second to 12th place in the Chase for the Cup.

''My grandfather and dad had a very rough week,'' Dillon said. ''I think it was the roughest week of my dad's career at RCR. My dad said that after the week he had that I had to come down here and win it. To come out here and do it is pretty awesome.''

Bowyer's car failed a follow-up inspection and he was penalized 150 points after winning last weekend's first race of the Chase for the Sprint Cup. NASCAR also fined crew chief Shane Wilson $150,000, and suspended him for the next six Sprint Cup races. Car chief Chad Haney was also suspended six races, and Childress was docked 150 owner points.

''Now I hope the Cup guys can finish off the weekend and prove to everybody that Clint Bowyer was legal,'' Dillon said, adding the negative comments about Bowyer and RCR ''makes you mad, it makes you want to go win.''