Ty Dillon at Wythe Raceway
On Wednesday evening, former Camping World Truck Series ‘Rookie of the Year’ Ty Dillon will return to that series for some dirt racing in the Mud Summer Classic on Tony Stewart’s Eldora Speedway. But this will be far from the North Carolina NASCAR Xfinity Series regular’s first time racing on a clay surface.
Dillon cut his racing teeth in Dirt Late Models as a youngster and as recently as Monday night was honing his skills in that form of racing during a Southern Nationals event at Wythe Raceway in Rural Retreat, Virginia. The 23-year-old qualified on the outside of the front row for that race and drove to a fourth place finish in the 35-lap feature.
“I grew up racing Dirt Late Models and have continued to do so throughout my NASCAR career,” Dillon explained in an interview with InsideDirtRacing.com. “I love getting out here and shaking off the rust and getting back to what I love to do. I’ve raced here at Wythe Raceway my whole career so it’s just fun to get back out and do what I started out racing on.”
The grandson of legendary NASCAR car owner Richard Childress enjoys the challenge of handling the powerful Super Late Models on dirt and believes that doing so helps keep him sharp for other forms of racing.
“These are some of the best racing and hardest cars to drive,” Dillon declared. “I feel like it keeps me sharper when I get back into an Xfinity car or a Sprint Cup car after I get out here and run these Late Models.”
Dillon believes that competing on dirt was critical during the early racing development of both him and older brother Austin.
“It was very important to my grandfather for us to run dirt,” Dillon pointed out. “That’s what he grew up racing on. As soon as we got in these cars, we just loved them because of the horsepower. It was important that he wanted us to feel real comfortable with back steering to the right and feeling comfortable with a loose race car because you have to run these Xfinity and Cup cars so aggressive and loose all the time to make speed that you’ve got to be comfortable with it. I think it’s been great for our careers and I’m glad it’s the path that we took.”
Ty Dillon demonstrating the “sideways and on the gas” style of Late Model racing
Super Late Models have an abundance of horsepower due to their ‘open motor’ rule which places very few restrictions on the engines used in this form of racing. At the same time, a Dirt Late Model car weighs in at about two-thirds the weight of a NASCAR Sprint Cup car. That combination can make these machines very difficult to drive.
“They’re two totally different animals,” Dillon said of the comparison between a Dirt Late Model and a NASCAR racer. “But it’s all racing so it helps no matter what you’re racing in as long as you’re racing something. I think the biggest help is having all this horsepower in the super motor with such light weight. It’s just a different style racing so it keeps you sharp.”
