Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon and his Danny Stockman-led Bass Pro Shops team ended their second year of full-time competition in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series with a 10th-place finish in the season finale race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, allowing Dillon to clinch the 2011 Driver’s Championship for Bass Pro Shops and Richard Childress Racing’s black #3 Chevrolet team.
*The accomplishment marks the second NCWTS championship for RCR, who earned the inaugural NCWTS series championship in 1995 with Mike Skinner, also in a #3 Chevrolet. The 42-year-old racing organization, headed by Dillon’s grandfather Richard Childress, now has 14 motorsports championships overall, spread across the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, NASCAR Nationwide Series, NCWTS and the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards.
*Dillon, the 2010 NCWTS Rookie of the Year, becomes the first driver in the 11-year history of the NCWTS to earn the rookie title and then the driving championship the subsequent year. He also holds the honor of youngest champion to be crowned in the series’ history. Along with Ty Dillon, the 2011 ARCA Racing Series champion, the Dillon’s are the only brothers who have earned same-year championships on a national stock car tour.
*The nation’s #1 outdoor retail leader, Bass Pro Shops, was positioned as the primary partner on Dillon’s #3 Chevrolet for the duration of the 2010 and 2011 race seasons. A long-time RCR supporter, Bass Pro Shops began its association with Richard Childress Racing in 1998 with associate sponsorship of the #3 GM Goodwrench Chevrolet Monte Carlo made famous by seven-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Dale Earnhardt. Bass Pro Shops’ partnership with RCR has also included sponsorship of the #29 Chevrolet driven by Kevin Harvick and primary sponsorship of Earnhardt’s eldest son, Kerry Earnhardt, in RCR’s #33 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet for six Sprint Cup Series races in 2004. The company sponsored Ty Dillon for his season-finale race in the ARCA Racing Series this year.
*Dillon joins an exclusive list of NCWTS driving champions, including Todd Bodine, Ron Hornaday, Jr., Johnny Benson, Ted Musgrave, Bobby Hamilton, Travis Kvapil, Mike Bliss, Jack Sprague, Greg Biffle and Mike Skinner. He will be formally honored at the annual NNS and NCWTS Awards Banquet at the Loews Miami Beach Hotel on Monday, Nov. 21. (Richard Childress Racing PR)(11-19-2011)
