Austin Dillon: “We can make the Chase"

While Dillon does not yet own a victory this season, he is currently high enough in the series points standings to make the 16-driver Chase field.

We have got tracks that we have circled to win at.

Austin Dillon

That, of course, can change over the next nine races, but his No. 3 Richard Childress Racing team is determined to stay in the hunt for the championship.

“We feel pretty positive about our chances.  We had a good meeting last week before Daytona with everybody in our organization. Slugger (Labbe, crew chief) pulled our team together and met with the core group of guys and kind of explained what we can accomplish,” Dillon said at Kentucky Speedway.

“We can make the Chase, we are sitting in a really good spot and we have to take every race more serious than we ever have.  Just take it one at a time, but really focus and do everything we can to get an advantage on everybody that is out there.”

2016 a big improvement for Dillon

Performance-wise, Dillon has set the pace this season for RCR’s three Cup teams as well as enjoying a personal best in his Cup career.

Through 17 races, he has three top-five and eight top-10 finishes and won one pole. He finished a career-best third at Talladega, Ala., this spring.

Dillon, the 26-year-old grandson of NASCAR Hall of Famer Richard Childress, said there are several ways in which his can get an advantage over his competitors, including looking for opportunities like this weekend when everyone in the Cup garage is on virtually an even playing field.

“We have got tracks that we have circled to win at. We want to really win a race to lock ourselves in solid and then we have tracks that we know we’ve got to improve on, places that we haven’t run great in the past,” he said.

“We need to jump up five, 10 spots because the other guys are going to be good going to those places. This is a place we’ve got circled because everybody is on fresh pavement and hopefully we can make it happen.”

Drivers who have been successful at Kentucky in the past, like Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski, will still be strong, but the new surface and different rules package could close the gap.

“When you come to these (newly) paved tracks where wide-open is pretty much the key, there are still some speed in the aerodynamics of the car. I think it will bring some guys closer because you will see other guys that run good at Kansas and places like that where there is a lot of throttle time will gain some positions,” Dillon said.

“I think hopefully, but (Busch and Keselowski) are two really good race car drivers and really good organizations. To knock those two off – it’s going to be tough, but it can be done.”