Shock issue led to disqualification of Austin Dillon's Richard Childress Racing truck
Related story: Roush Fenway's Colin Braun wins Truck pole; RCR's Austin Dillon sidelined as time disallowed
TALLADEGA, Ala. – The left front shock of Austin Dillon’s truck was built wrong and had no way to rebound following his qualifying run, which is what caused the Richard Childress Racing truck to fail post-qualifying inspection Friday, team vice president of competition Mike Dillon said Saturday morning at Talladega Superspeedway.
Mike Dillon, Austin’s father, said RCR got the shocks from an outside group that has been helping the team. The error – no bleed shim that would allow the truck to raise to the minimum height after the run – was in the misconstruction of the shock and wasn’t done intentionally, Dillon said.
Because RCR has not attempted all of the Truck events this year, it did not have a guaranteed spot. With the qualifying time disallowed, Dillon failed to make the field for the race today.
“It didn’t have any bleed shims in it – it wasn’t going to come back up,” Mike Dillon said. “It was just a major mistake. It’s embarrassing for us. … It was just an error on the build. It wasn’t purposely done.”
The shock was changed between practice and qualifying, and it slowed the truck down, Dillon said.
“[Austin] did everything he was supposed to do,” Dillon said. “He was good in practice. He got up in the draft … and was really fast. We were like, ‘Wow, we’re going to be OK.’ He was relaxed and really enjoyed it. Just getting comfortable here is what we were trying to do for next year.”
Dillon said he understood that NASCAR had to disallow the time.
“It’s not fair for the other teams whose trucks came through and made it through heights,” Dillon said. “It’s our mistake, not NASCAR’s. They were doing the right thing.”
