NASCAR Media Conference

Topics:  NASCAR

Ty Dillon
April 9, 2013

AMANDA ELLIS: We are now joined by Ty Dillon, driver of the No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing in the NASCAR Camping World Series. He's currently eighth in the series championship standings.
Ty, Rockingham is considered your home track. Talk a little bit about your memories growing up near there and finishing eighth in the inaugural Truck race last season.
TY DILLON: Yeah, Rockingham is a place that's always been real close to me, close to my family being so close to home. I remember going with my grandfather when I was really young, just riding up the day before the race in his Corvette, spending a full day with him at the racetrack and really learning about racing back in the day when Dale Earnhardt was driving, and it was always a great time when Rockingham came around and I got to go to the race shop with my grandfather and have a little fun as a kid.
We had a good run last year. We weren't as strong as we wanted to be, coming off an ARCA win there the year before, so we wanted to be a little bit better, and we've been really working hard this off‑season so we can go into Rockingham. It's a race I really want to win, and me and my dad have been working really hard to get to that point. We feel like we have a great opportunity, all the guys have been working and we've got a great truck, so I can't wait for this weekend.

Q. You've raced at Rockingham a couple of times. Is there any other track that the series runs on that you can compare it to at all? What was it like last year compared to what you might have expected?
TY DILLON: Yeah, it's really hard to compare to Rockingham. The transitions in the corner are really big. You go from a flat straightaway almost to pretty tall banking there. The only place that seems to relate the way it drives a little bit is Dover. You have a little more grip at Dover, but Rockingham has sort of the same transitions and you get the same trend on the handling aspect of your truck. We base a little bit of our setup off Dover, but other than that, Rockingham is very unique in the way it wears out tires and the way it races.

Q. The track was obviously off the schedule, off all schedules for a while. What did it mean to you to go there and run last year, to get the track back on the circuit?
TY DILLON: It is so cool because it's a place that means not just so much to the people in the sport, the fans, to see us back on the racetrack, but to see the drivers be able to race at a place that has so much history for our sport. To be back on track there was really a good relief for our sport, and I think it's just sort of become sort of the comeback trail of our sport a little bit over the last couple years, getting us back to our roots, and it's going to be something that's going keep getting the fans excited, I believe.

Q. Do you feel that Rockingham gives you some sort of maybe a home field advantage, and also, with all the travel that you do, when you get to race at a North Carolina track, does that bring more‑‑ do you get more of your friends and family there than you would normally do all the other places you travel?
TY DILLON: Yeah, definitely. When you race at home you definitely have a lot more of your fans and your friends and family come to the track, and it's pretty cool when you get to have your family that doesn't get to go to very many races come to see you race and see what you get to do and also your friends. I think it's more of a home track for everybody, so there's really not an advantage for no one single driver unless there's a team not based in North Carolina like ThorSport Racing.
I think everybody is going to be really excited to be close to home for one more week before we really have to start traveling with the Truck Series. I'm excited because it's a place that means a lot to me that's only a couple‑‑ about an hour up the road from my house, so I'm looking forward to it.

Q. And with all the history that Rockingham has, do you think that gives something special to the fans, to have it back on the NASCAR circuit?
TY DILLON: Yeah, definitely, and I think it's something special for the fans who have been a part of the sport for such a long time, to be able to go back to the place that they've grown up watching races at when they were kids and now they're racing there again.
I think it's great for the legacy of the sport and also for the new fans. It's cool for a new fan to be able to say they've watched a race now that's full of all the history that they might not have been able to see.
AMANDA ELLIS: Ty, we appreciate you joining us today and wish you the best of luck this weekend in Rockingham.