NASCAR Cup Series: Will Austin Dillon be exposed in 2020?

Many NASCAR fans have taken exception to the fact that Austin Dillon still has a ride in the Cup Series, but his performance against his teammates over the years hasn’t been all that poor. Will the 2020 season change that?

The average NASCAR Cup Series fan doesn’t think super highly of Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon, and that has become more evident year after year.

Whether it’s on social media or at the race track itself, you can’t see Dillon’s name mentioned or hear it over the track loud-speaker without seeing or hearing the ensuing comments or shouts containing the words “silver spoon” or “granddaddy’s money”.

The 29-year-old Welcome, North Carolina native driven for Richard Childress Racing, owned by his grandfather Richard Childress, throughout his entire 10-year career as a full-time NASCAR driver.

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He spent the 2010 and 2011 seasons driving for the team in the Truck Series. After winning the 2011 championship, he was promoted to the Xfinity Series, where he spent the 2012 and 2013 seasons. Ever since winning the 2013 championship, he has driven for the team in the Cup Series.

Dillon certainly had the success in the Xfinity Series and Truck Series to warrant a shot to compete at NASCAR’s highest level. But with just two victories in 221 career Cup Series starts, whether or not he truly belongs in the series has come into question.

The problem with the idea that he doesn’t belong is the fact that he has never truly been outclassed by any of his teammates, especially in recent years.

In the 2014 season, teammate Ryan Newman did advance to the Championship 4, but he did so after muscling his way through the playoffs following a 26-race regular season in which he recorded only two top five finishes. He didn’t win a race all season, but he still finished in second place in the championship standings.

Dillon, meanwhile, finished in 20th place in the championship standings, still ahead of teammate Paul Menard in 21st. In the 2015 season, Newman and Menard both advanced to the playoffs while Dillon didn’t, but none of them finished in the top 10 in the standings.

Since the 2016 season, Dillon hasn’t finished lower than any of his teammates in the championship standings. He was the only one of the team’s three drivers to advance to the playoffs in the 2016 season, and he advanced to the playoffs along with Newman in the 2017 season after they both won a race, with Dillon’s Coca-Cola 600 victory at Charlotte Motor Speedway being the first of his Cup Series career.

In the 2018 season after the team downsized to just two cars, Newman scored more points than Dillon in the regular season, but Dillon advanced to the playoffs instead of Newman after winning the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway.

In the 2019 season, Dillon failed to qualify for the playoffs for the first time in four years, but he still sits ahead of rookie teammate Daniel Hemric in the championship standings even though Hemric’s top finish of fifth place is better than Dillon’s top finish of sixth.

When Richard Childress Racing exercised the option to end Hemric’s contract with the team after only one season, the idea of nepotism as it pertains to Childress and Dillon was floated more than it has ever been.

But with Tyler Reddick having been tipped to replace Hemric at Richard Childress Racing next season, the 2020 season could be the season in which this concept truly does (or doesn’t) become exposed.

Reddick, the reigning Xfinity Series champion driving for JR Motorsports, has been phenomenal in his first season driving for Richard Childress Racing in the series this season. He won the regular season championship, and he has earned a career-high five victories so far this year.

Dillon recorded just four victories in his two full-time Truck Series seasons, and he recorded just two victories in his two full-time Xfinity Series seasons. Hemric, who has performed almost just as well as Dillon in his rookie Cup Series season driving for the same team, earned zero victories in his two full-time Truck Series seasons and zero victories in his two full-time Xfinity Series seasons.

Reddick, meanwhile, made his first two Cup Series starts this season. After he was wrecked out of the Daytona 500, he finished in ninth place in the race at Kansas Speedway. In a combined 56 starts, Dillon and Hemric have recorded only three top nine finishes this year.

Simply put, Reddick has the potential to blow Dillon out of the water in the Cup Series.

Richard Childress Racing clearly have the speed to contend for solid if not great results on a regular basis, but neither Dillon nor Hemric have been able to capitalize this year.

Dillon’s average starting position is 14.8, and his average finishing position is 20.2. Hemric’s average starting position is 17.4, and his average finishing position is 22.8. They are two of only four drivers in the entire field whose average finishing positions are least five positions worse than their average starting positions, and they are the only teammates who can both say that.

If Reddick can capitalize on that raw speed like he has in the Xfinity Series, the criticism that Dillon faces is going to increase exponentially, even from what it already is.

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Will Austin Dillon truly be exposed in the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season, presumably by Tyler Reddick, or will he show that while he hasn’t had the best of his results during his tenure at Richard Childress Racing, he has gotten as much as he can out of his equipment?

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