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NASCAR America: Success of Richard Childress Racing, Roush Fenway leaves faster teams scrambling

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Austin Dillon surprised some with his Coca-Cola 600 win at Charlotte over the weekend but he showed with his victory that he's the future of Richard Childress Racing.

Austin Dillon’s win in the Coca-Cola 600 furthered one of the more surprising storylines of 2017.

It gave Richard Childress Racing its second win of the year while teams like Joe Gibbs Racing and Hendrick Motorsports continue to struggle, with JGR still winless after 12 races.

NASCAR America analysts Jeff Burton and Greg Biffle discussed Dillon’s win and the position it puts other teams in

“I can tell you who it’s not exciting for and that’s the teams that haven’t won,” Burton said. “When you start looking at putting two RCR cars in the playoffs, putting a Roush car in the field, these are teams that haven’t been performing well enough as far as speed to race their way in. They’ve been very, very smart. Roush won at a superspeedway, the two Childress cars, great fuel strategy, great ideas on what they did. They won the races. But now you have teams that are having faster lap times scrambling.”

With Dillon’s win, analyst Parker Kligerman says it solidifies him as the face of RCR.

“It’s not to put Paul Menard down, but if he were to go out there and get this win and be one of the two drivers they have in the playoffs, that’s not quite the same when you’re looking at the future of Richard Childress Racing,” Kligerman said. “This is a team that is trying to use Austin Dillon with his social media savvy to try and go get sponsors and say he’s trying to connect with his fan base, he’s building his own fan base. He’s becoming a super star in his own right. That’s what sells sponsors.”

Watch the video for the full segment.