‘It sucks to be so close to having a shot at winning,’ Austin Dillon on missing out on a win for the second time this season
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Austin Dillon
Austin Dillon secured a P3 finish in the Martinsville NASCAR Cup Series race, the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400 after he failed to close out on winner William Byron and runner-up Joey Logano. This is the 3ed consecutive top 10 finish for the No: 3 Richard Childress Racing driver and his second top 3 finish in 2022.
Austin Dillon had everything on track for him to win at Martinsville as he started p2 behind the winner William Byron but a restart mistake saw him failing to get the much-needed edge on Byron and eventually came up short at the finish line.
Now Austin Dillon has come forth expressing his opinion on his run at the short track and what it feels like to miss out on a win for a second consecutive time,
Find out what Austin Dillon said
Austin Dillon explained that he was supposed to stay with Byron through the gears but he failed as he missed the mark on defending Joey Logano who made an advance on him at turn 4. He explained that he gapped himself too much trying to bumper off Joey Logano.
“I was supposed to stay with Byron through the gears (and) I didn’t. I had to worry about No. 45 [Kurt Busch]. I was spinning the tires too much so I was kind of defensive through there. I picked up the gas in the middle of Turns 1 and 2, and I was able to get back in (line), but at that point, Joey [Logano] was already tucked in line,” Austin Dillon said.
“I was hoping they would get together and I would have a run. I got to Joey’s back bumper off of (Turn) 4 but I gapped myself too much and wasn’t able to take advantage of that forward drive we had saved throughout that last run. I felt like we had a little bit left if I was able to get through the gears and I wasn’t able to,” Austin Dillon added.
He went on to say it sucks losing coming so close to a win. Austin Dillon added that he tries to minimize mistakes all night but failed to keep it up on that last restart.
“It sucks (to be) so close to having a shot at winning. I had it played out in my mind to get through the gears, get to Turn 1, and shove him up the track, and I minimized mistakes all night but I didn’t do a very good job on that last restart,” says Austin Dillon.
“I had no problem passing,” Austin Dillon denies the notion that it was hard to make a pass at Martinsville
Austin Dillon acknowledges that he had no problem passing other drivers on the track as opinionated by other drivers by pointing out his climb 23ed position at the start to a P3 finish. He went on to add that the track produced fast lap times just like the qualifiers.
“I had no problem passing; I came from 23rd a couple of different times coming to the front. Yeah, it was difficult, but there was a ton of grip on the track. It’s freezing, the track’s fast; fast lap times. You’re averaging lap times close to qualifying there at the end when we were out front,” Austin Dillon said.
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