NASCAR O'Reilly

Austin Dillon and KHI preview

Nashville

Edited: Apr 19, 2011, 7:08 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Austin Dillon, 2010

Photo by: Motorsport.com / ASP Inc.

AUSTIN DILLON SET TO MAKE KHI DEBUT: Driver Austin Dillon will make his Kevin Harvick Inc. (KHI) debut this weekend in the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Nashville Superspeedway. Dillon, a full-time driver in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series for Richard Childress Racing (RCR), will pilot the No. 33 Rheem Chevrolet Impala in what will also be his first Nationwide Series start of the 2011 season.

NEW TO NATIONWIDE AT NASHVILLE: While Dillon has no previous series starts at the 1.333-mile concrete Tennessee track, he has two Truck Series events under his belt. The driver competed in both Truck Series races last season with a best finish of second.

Dillon made his Nationwide Series debut in 2008 at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway in September. He has seven career starts with one top-five and one top-ten finish.

KHI GOING FOR ANOTHER GIBSON: With KHI co-owner Kevin Harvick behind the wheel the No. 33 team captured the win at Nashville Superspeedway last spring, the second of three victories for the team during the 2010 season. After starting from the outside pole, Harvick led 52 of the 225 laps en route to collecting the infamous Gibson guitar trophy. The win was the two-time series champion's second in four starts, but first win in his own equipment at the facility.

CHASSIS HISTORY: The No. 33 Rheem team, led by crew chief David Hyder, will unload chassis No. 069 this weekend at Nashville Superspeedway. Kevin Harvick was in the driver's seat the last time this chassis saw competition at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in February. Harvick started the race from the fourth position but was relegated to a 28th-place finish after sustaining damage in a late-race incident.

THOUGHTS FROM THE DRIVER: AUSTIN DILLON

Harvick has always been one of my heroes, so it means a lot to me to be able to race for him.

Austin Dillon

What are your thoughts heading into the NASCAR Nationwide Series race since you haven't run in that particular series at Nashville?

"It's going to be a learning experience for sure. I went to Gresham Motorsports Park with the No. 33 team and tested in order to prepare for this race, but it will no doubt be different when I'm in the car under race conditions. The good thing is that I can lean on Kevin Harvick and Elliott Sadler. Both have always been very willing to help me, and I plan to use their input a lot throughout the weekend."

What does it mean to race for KHI in the NASCAR Nationwide Series?

"[Kevin] Harvick has always been one of my heroes, so it means a lot to me to be able to race for him. He's always been able to get it done in a race car. I admired him growing up, and I think I can learn a lot from him. Kevin Harvick Inc. has really good equipment, so I'm just excited to go to Nashville and be able to drive the No. 33 Rheem Chevrolet."

Are you a country music fan?

"Oh yeah, I love country music. It would be awesome to get the Gibson guitar. I like old country, new country, a little bit of everything. I listen to classic country with my grandfather."

-source: khi

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Rusty Wallace Racing adds third car

Next article Scott Wimmer race report

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

What we learned from Friday practice at the 2026 Mexico GP

Formula 1

Mexican GP

What we learned from Friday practice at the 2026 Mexico GP

Chandler Smith wins Martinsville as NASCAR Truck title fight tightens

NASCAR Truck

NSTR NASCAR Truck

Martinsville

58 min

Chandler Smith wins Martinsville as NASCAR Truck title fight tightens

F1 Mexico GP: Saturday schedule, weather forecast and how to watch

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Mexican GP

1 h

F1 Mexico GP: Saturday schedule, weather forecast and how to watch

Max Verstappen slams Liam Lawson for FP2 clash at F1 Mexico GP

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Mexican GP

1 h

Max Verstappen slams Liam Lawson for FP2 clash at F1 Mexico GP

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts