If not for an understandable rookie adaptation period, the short list of championship contenders would surely include Austin Dillon’s name.
The statistics say it all. Over the past seven races, Dillon has scored seven consecutive top-10 finishes. His numbers are tremendous: an average finish of 4.4, a Driver Rating of 115.0, an Average Running Position of 4.9, 225 Laps Led, 150 Fastest Laps Run and a Laps in the Top 15 percentage of 98.8%.
But those first seven were shaky, at best. None of his finishes were in the top five, and only two were in the top 10. He had a Driver Rating of 69.0 and an Average Running Position of 17.9.
Chalk it up to rookie jitters, because Dillon’s maturation process is done.
In fact, over the last seven races, Dillon has scored more points than points leader – and championship favorite – Todd Bodine. Over the last seven races, Dillon has scored 1,137 points. Over the same span, Bodine has 1,120.
Dillon bests – or comes close to – many of Bodine’s other numbers as well. Though Bodine put up a better Driver Rating over the last seven races (116.9), Dillon trumped the 2006 series champion in Average Running Position (4.9 vs. 6.3), Laps in the Top 15 percentage (98.8% vs. 91.4%), Fastest Laps Run (150 vs. 124) and average finish (4.4 vs. 6.3).
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NASCAR Camping World Truck Series: News And Notes - Darlington Raceway
CAR DRIVER MAKE SPONSOR 1 Joe Aramendia Chevrolet Koma Unwind Chillaxation Drink 2 Ken Schrader Chevrolet Stubb's Legendary Bar-B-Q / Kroger 3 Austin Dillon* Chevrolet Bass Pro Shops / Remington Arms / Tracker 4 Ricky Carmichael Chevrolet Monster Energy 5 Mike Skinner Toyota International Trucks / Monaco RV 6 TBA Chevrolet Rick Ware Racing 7 Justin Lofton* Toyota VisitPIT.com 7 Donny Lia Chevrolet SS Green Light Racing 10 Jennifer Jo Cobb* Ford drivenmale.com / DriverBoutique.com 12 Mario Gosselin Chevrolet TireMonkey.com / James Carter Attorney 13 Johnny Sauter Chevrolet Curb Records 15 TBA2 Toyota Billy Ballew Motorsports 17 Timothy Peters Toyota Red Horse Racing 18 Brian Ickler Toyota Toyota Tundra 21 Butch Miller Dodge SS Green Light Racing 23 Jason White Dodge GunBroker.com / Outdoor Channel Outfitters 30 Todd Bodine Toyota Germain.com 31 James Buescher Chevrolet Wolfpack Rentals 33 Ron Hornaday Chevrolet ShopEZGO.com 39 Ryan Sieg Chevrolet S&W Towing 46 J C Stout Dodge Team Gill Racing 47 Brett Butler* Chevrolet Rick Ware Racing 51 Aric Almirola Toyota Zyclara by Graceway Pharmaceuticals 57 Norm Benning Chevrolet Norm Benning Racing 60 Stacy Compton Chevrolet SafeAuto Insurance Company 81 David Starr Toyota Zachry 85 Brent Raymer Ford Ford. Drive one. 88 Matt Crafton Chevrolet Menards 89 Chris Lafferty Chevrolet Lafferty Performance 93 Mike Garvey Chevrolet S&W Towing 95 Dillon Oliver Dodge Team Gill Racing 150 T.J. Bell Chevrolet Liberty Tire Recycling 192 Dennis Setzer Chevrolet fleetHQ.com / BTS Tire & Wheel Distributors
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