Tyler Reddick, Austin Dillon quietly making progress with RCR
By Bob Pockrass
FOX Sports NASCAR Writer
DARLINGTON, S.C. — Looking at the NASCAR Cup Series standings and the playoff bubble as we approach the halfway point of 2021, things appear much the same as they did heading into the regular-season finale a year ago.
Richard Childress Racing teammates Austin Dillon and Tyler Reddick are there on the brink.
But sometimes looks can be deceiving. Because 12 races into 2022, the RCR cars don’t appear anything like they did in 2021.
They seem to have more speed. Reddick has four top-5 finishes, including a second-place run Sunday at Darlington Raceway. Dillon has three top-5s and six top-10s, with the sixth coming at Darlington, where he rallied from two speeding penalties to finish ninth.
"Last year was an interesting year for us," Dillon said. "We were really consistent, just never challenged for wins or many top-5s but consistently in the edge of the top-10. And it came down to Tyler and I fighting for the last spot on points. We didn't get a win.
"So this year, it's ... more of like, ‘Man, we have more opportunities to win, and we’ve got to capitalize.’ It's been unfortunate. We haven't been able to capitalize with the seconds and the thirds that we've been able to knock down so far."
Austin Dillon on having more speed in 2022
Dillon leads Reddick by one point at the current playoff cutoff, but it wouldn’t be unfathomable to see either of them win or both of them earn enough points to get into the playoffs. Last year, Reddick made the playoffs on points, and Dillon was the first car out.
"Me and Tyler are both big competitors," Dillon said. "And we like to have fun, but we're really serious right now trying to get our car locked into playoffs.
"There’s definitely more weight on our shoulders this year than I think in years past because of the opportunities we've already had. We should be in the playoffs, and we don’t want to let that slip away. We’re on the edge of that same position we were last year, and we’ve had better runs this year."
There is a feeling that because RCR played a key role in the development of the Next Gen car introduced this season — the prototype was built at the RCR shop — the team has had a little bit of an advantage.
That probably is true. Just a little bit.
"We’ve got really good people [in our development department]," Dillon said. "The car has changed drastically since we first went out there and tested it, and the things that we’ve learned.
"I don’t think anybody really has a big advantage on this car right now. It’s just who hits it each week. And we’ve been fortunate enough to hit it a couple of more weeks than the rest."
Tyler Reddick speaks about seeking more consistency
The inconsistent nature of Reddick’s season — he nearly won on the Bristol dirt, had a horrible day at Dover and placed second at Darlington in a span of four weeks — shows that he and his team still need to learn about adjustments in the new car.
"Just one adjustment, even though it was a good-sized adjustment, took us from being on the tight side, can’t turn in a 40-acre field, to sideways loose holding on," he said of Dover earlier this month.
"These cars definitely are more sensitive than the last car. But I think that's a product of just how new the car is and how much we still have yet to learn about this car. There’s a lot of things that we learn pretty much every single weekend."
The one thing it certainly hasn’t given them is qualifying speed. Dillon has finished better than he qualified in six of his past seven races. He thinks his team has shown the ability to adjust the car well. But at Dover, Dillon and Reddick experienced a similar steering issue that possibly caused their troubles.
"We’ve sucked at qualifying," Dillon said of his season. "We haven’t qualified great, but we are able to progressively make the car better. We make good changes throughout the race.
"I’ve been harping on trying to unload better. We really trust in our simulator. And I think finding that delta has been tough for us to unload [well]. But the good thing is all the time we spent in the simulator has helped us with adjustments."
Austin Dillon finishing better than where he qualifies
RCR has been known as an organization that marches to the beat of its own drum, with the hard-nosed racing roots of its owner and Dale Earnhardt. Dillon and Reddick continue to carry a little bit of that vibe.
Dillon is the grandson of Childress, so he has been around the organization his entire life. Reddick has spent just a few years at RCR but fits in well and won an Xfinity title with the organization in 2019.
"It’s a great atmosphere," Reddick said. "Everyone here works really, really hard.
"The performance that we have when it's good on track, everyone wears it with pride. And when we have bad weekends ... everyone really wears it on their shoulder, too, and they go right back to work, and they're not happy until we make it better."
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Thinking out loud
Was Joey Logano’s move at the end of the race Sunday justified?
It didn’t appear so. But in Logano’s mind, it totally was. William Byron’s contact with Logano when Byron took the lead looked like a more-or-less innocent racing deal.
Then Logano gave Byron a huge shove from behind to get the lead back with two laps remaining.
Was Joey Logano's move at Darlington justified?
In some ways, it was new-school racing at NASCAR’s throwback race at Darlington. With the cars so even and passing difficult, if a driver has a chance for a win to get into the playoffs, he needs to take it. With that in mind, it was an understandable (if difficult to like) move for the win by Logano, who had led just 35 laps in the first 11 races prior to Sunday.
Social spotlight
Stat of the day
The pass for the win has come in the final 10 laps in nine of 12 Cup races in 2022.
They said it
"You're not going to get pushed around. I'm not going to get bullied. I'll tell you that much. That's how the sport works. Our sport has worked like this for years." — Joey Logano
Bob Pockrass has spent decades covering motorsports, including the past 30 Daytona 500s. He joined FOX Sports in 2019 following stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @bobpockrass. Looking for more NASCAR content? Sign up for the FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass!
