LONG POND — Ty Dillon would love to be the favorite in Sunday’s Axalta “We Paint Winners” 400 at Pocono Raceway.
That may be a stretch for the NASCAR Xfinity points runner-up who is driving a NASCAR Sprint Cup car, the Circle Sport No. 33 sponsored by Pottsville’s D.G. Yuengling & Son, for the first time at Pocono.
But there’s no doubt which horse he favors in today’s Belmont Stakes.
As a promotion for Kentucky Speedway’s Sprint Cup race on July 11, Dillon visited Churchill Downs this week and met American Pharoah, the Kentucky Derby and Preakness champion that will bid today for the Triple Crown at Belmont Park.
“We met the assistant trainer and he let me go back there to feed (American Pharoah) some carrots, and watched him walk out to the hauler as he was leaving to go out to New York, hopefully to win the Triple Crown,” Dillon said.
“So if he wins it, I’m going to take all the credit.”
But, when it comes to handicapping his own bid in Sunday’s race, Dillon knows the odds are considerably longer, though he relishes the attempt, the third of the season in a Sprint Cup car.
“I still have a lot to learn,” he said. “These guys are definitely on another level. I’m still learning these cars and every track is new to me.”
Not exactly.
Dillon won the ARCA Series Presented by Menards race at Pocono in 2011, and he has a top-10 finish in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series at the track.
But a top-20 finish Sunday would please Dillon, a grandson of Richard Childress, whose race team is preparing the Yuengling America’s Oldest Brewery No. 33.
Dillon timed 28th of 43 cars in Friday’s practice and qualified 29th for Sunday’s race.
“The obvious difference is the power of the cars and the obvious difference is the way they handle the downforce, but the thing that you’re not really used to is the competition level,” he said. “You have to be so perfect every lap in a Sprint Cup car because the competition’s so much higher than the Xfinity car. … You feel like Superman when you get back in the Xfinity car.”
Dillon, who placed 28th in the Daytona 500 and 26th in the SpongeBob SquarePants 400 earlier this season, gets another chance at Sprint Cup this week because of the Yuengling sponsorship. It is the brewery’s first foray into Sprint Cup as part of a deal that has sponsored Dillon in some Xfinity Series races over the past two years.
“We’ve got an awesome looking race car, probably one of the coolest ones that’s been out on the race track in a long time,” Dillon said, adding, “I love working with those guys. I’m glad they’re going to have a big group of people out here this weekend. Hopefully, we can put on a great show for them.”
That effort will depend greatly upon his crew chief, Richard “Slugger” Labbe, who heads Richard Childress Racing’s research and development. Labbe has worked with many Sprint Cup drivers in a long career that includes five wins, including the Brickyard 400 with Paul Menard in 2011.
“Coming to Pocono is a new challenge for anybody, a rookie or not,” Labbe said, adding, “We’ve tried to prepare Ty with as much data, as much in-car camera footage, race footage, to give him as much information as we had so he could have it.”
Labbe added the input of spotter Billy O’Dea, who used to spot for Kevin Harvick, will be critical.
“He’s won a lot of races,” Labbe said of O’Dea. “To have Billy up in the spotter’s stand will help Ty’s transition to figuring out Pocono.”
That is all part of Dillon’s education that he hopes will lead to more Sprint Cup starts, even as he battles Chris Buescher for this season’s Xfinity Series title. Dillon trails Buescher by 15 points after the season’s first 12 races.
“I think, in a perfect world, I’d love to run both series full-time, to compete for the Rookie of the Year championship in the Sprint Cup Series and do what my brother (Sprint Cup regular Austin) is doing this year in the Xfinity Series,” Dillon said. “His performance in the Cup series has been better this year and I think a lot of that is the confidence of being able to go back and forth.
“A lot of drivers are doing that because the cars are getting so similar.”
With the team’s sponsor so close to the racetrack, this weekend will be unlike others for Dillon and Labbe.
Labbe said he may come to Pottsville today to visit the Yuengling brewery.
“I’ve never really done that,” Labbe said. “I might sample a few products fresh off the mill and see how that goes.”
Also, Dillon may be watching the Belmont Stakes and the Triple Crown attempt of American Pharoah.
Is he also a betting man?
Taking a long pause, Dillon said, “Sometimes.”