Rookie Dillon rules NASCAR trucks race at LVMS

Austin Dillon could not have found a better way to send good vibes to his grandfather.

The 20-year-old grandson of Richard Childress dominated the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where Dillon set a series rookie record by winning his fifth pole and followed by winning the Smith's 350k.

Childress endured a week in which NASCAR penalized Clint Bowyer, one of his three Sprint Cup drivers, for using an illegal car to win the Cup race last week at New Hampshire. The loss of 150 points dropped Bowyer from second to 12th in the Chase standings, and his crew chief was fined $150,000. Childress will appeal the alleged violation.

The controversy heated up this weekend at the Cup race in Dover, Del., where driver Denny Hamlin said the Bowyer team cheated.

That made Dillon's Las Vegas performance extra special.

Dillon was thrilled to give Childress and his father, Mike Dillon, vice president of competition for Richard Childress Racing, something to smile about.

"I saw my grandfather early last week and he said, 'Man, you've got to go out there and win this race.'

"This was probably the toughest week for my dad and grandfather since (Dale) Earnhardt died. It makes you mad when people talk about your team, and I hope one of the Richard Childress drivers goes out and wins (today at Dover)."

They'll have a good chance if they have a vehicle as well prepared as Dillon's.

"It sure helps when the truck is fast when you unload it," said Dillon, who had never been to the Las Vegas track before Saturday.

The victory was also special for Dillon's crew chief, Danny Stockman, who worked in Las Vegas from 2003 to 2007 for Brendan Gaughan's truck team. For two years he worked for crew chief Shane Wilson, who is Bowyer's crew chief and was penalized for last week's rules infraction.

Through all the tension Childress will face today and the appeals process, he can always take pleasure in reviewing how Dillon won his second race of the year, a victory that lifted him to fourth in the truck points standings.

Dillon led five times for 93 laps, including the last 40. Caution periods erased leads spanning 2.9 to 6.4 seconds, and he led runner-up Johnny Sauter by 5.5 seconds at the end of the 146-lap race that covered 219 miles.

"That kid was two-tenths (of a second) faster than us on each lap at the end," said Sauter, who won last year's Las Vegas race. "We had a solid truck but the 3 truck was lights out."

Dillon has been a fan favorite since he started in the series by running the No. 3 made famous by Earnhardt when the late NASCAR star drove for Childress.

Dillon, a student at High Point University in North Carolina and the points leader among rookies, battled another 20-year-old, James Buescher, for much of the race. Buescher finished third.

Todd Bodine, who finished fourth, increased his points lead in the drivers' championship standings to 262 over Aric Almirola with five races remaining.

In the owners' points race, Kyle Busch Motorsports fell 39 points behind Bodine's Germain Racing team after Brian Ickler drove the No. 18 KBM entry to a seventh-place finish.

Contact reporter Jeff Wolf at jwolf@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0247.