Beginning in 2017, Ty Dillon will take over full-time driving duties of the #13 GEICO Chevrolet SS in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series for Germain Racing. Dillon follows Casey Mears, a seasoned veteran who, over the last six years, has helped build Germain Racing’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series program into a viable organization that has garnered the respect and attention of NASCAR’s elite. The 24-year old Dillon has made 17 starts in the Sprint Cup Series for several different teams, including Circle Sport/Leavine Family Racing and Stewart-Haas Racing. He scored a career-best sixth-place finish at Talladega Superspeedway in May 2016 while serving as a relief driver for Tony Stewart. Germain Racing notched two NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Championships and two top-10 points finishes in the NASCAR XFINITY Series before making the jump to the nation’s top racing series. Since the inception of their Sprint Cup Series program in 2009, the team has established itself as an accomplished restrictor-plate program, while also achieving success at the series’ road course events. With the switch to Chevrolet and the addition of Richard Childress Racing as a technical partner in 2014, they have experienced improvement at the challenging intermediate tracks. Team owner, Bob Germain, aims to continue making progress in the coming years. RCR’s partnership with Germain Racing includes technology sharing, research and development, and engineering under the Chevrolet banner. Germain Racing will also continue to utilize the highly reliable and powerful engines from ECR Engines.(Germain Racing)(11-28-2016)
UPDATE: In a Monday morning appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR’s Radio’s ‘The Morning Drive’ program, Dillon indicated that an agreement with Germain Racing came together earlier in the year. The challenge, he said, was staying mum until this week. A team spokesperson confirmed Monday that Robert ‘Bootie’ Barker would return as the team’s crew chief in 2017. GEICO returns as primary sponsor, extending a relationship that bridged Germain Racing’s transition to a full-time Sprint Cup team in 2009. The Germain team shares a technical alliance with Richard Childress Racing, the multicar organization founded by Dillon’s grandfather, and its entries are powered by Childress-owned ECR Engines. Dillon said that the existing partnerships should help smooth his own transition to a full slate of racing in NASCAR’s premier series.(NASCAR.com)
