Austin Dillon suffers costly failure just before halfway at Dover

Dillon’s right-front brake rotor broke, damaged his tire and sent his No. 3 Chevrolet into the Turn 3 wall on Lap 184 of 400 in Sunday’s AAA 400 at Dover (Del.) International Speedway.

“I think it was the brakes. I was complaining about them before that, having to pump them up,” Dillon said from the garage. “I am just frustrated. We had the same issue at Bristol and we come here and we have another issue with the brakes. 

“I’m frustrated, but we had a good car. Our Chevrolet was fast and we had good shot of running top 10, top-five depending on track position.”

Dillon, still searching for his first series victory, entered the Dover race eighth in the series standings and with six top-10 finishes in the first 11 races – more than he had all off last season (five).

“It’s just a bummer. I feel bad for all these guys who have worked hard all weekend. We had a solid car, just a part failure,” Dillon said. “It’s part of racing and we’ll be back next week.”

Dillon has since returned to the race, 47 laps down. While riding around, he got run into from behind by Brad Keselowski, who was running second and sustained significant right front damage. The No. 3 was off the pace at the time of the incident.