As he got out of his car and the burnout smoke began to clear, Dillon struggled to contain his emotions, wiping away the tears that were gathering in his eyes.
He walked across the track filled with Richard Childress crew members celebrating the win and embraced his grandfather and car-owner Richard Childress along the inside wall.
Nineteen years after Dale Earnhardt won the Brickyard 400, a black No. 3 car returned to victory lane at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. But this time, it was 22-year-old rookie Ty Dillon — the grandson of Earnhardt’s former car owner, Childress — who took the win in the NASCAR Nationwide Series Lilly Diabetes 250 at the Brickyard.
“It really hasn’t fully sunk in yet,” Dillon said in the winner’s press conference. “The emotions are incredible.”
Childress was the first family member to embrace Dillon. He was soon followed by Ty’s older brother Austin and his father as the family celebrated together along the front stretch of the hallowed 2.5-mile oval.
While reflecting on what his grandson had just accomplished, Childress was nearly at a loss for words.
“I was just thinking about sitting up here, and I thought, man, would it be cool to be up here especially with one of my grandsons,” Childress said. “It was just special.”
Dillon made his race-winning pass of Kyle Busch on a restart on lap 76. Busch opted to start on the outside lane on hot tires from the lead, but he didn’t get the jump he needed to on the restart going into the first turn.
Busch’s slow start allowed Dillon’s Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet just enough time to complete a pass with the help of Matt Kenseth pushing from behind.
Dillon was able to slide in front of Busch and clear him on the short chute between turns 1 and 2. From there, Dillon slowly extended his lead during the remaining laps, building a comfortable buffer between himself and Busch, who finished second.
Busch made a late race charge with three laps remaining, but it wasn’t enough to make up for his poor final restart.
“We gave it away on that last restart there in turn 1,” Busch said. “Just got down in there and the car never turned and the car on my inside, Ty, just drove right on by me and made me look stupid. He got the lead and it was over from there.”
As has become typical at Indianapolis, the 100-lap race ran under green flag conditions for most of the 250 miles, prompting a number of fuel strategies to be played out throughout the day. At the end of the day, track position proved most important.
Kenseth rounded out the podium in third. Kevin Harvick finished fourth and Joey Logano rounded out the top-five.
Nationwide Series points leader Chase Elliot finished 12th and kept his series points lead. The top four drivers are separated by just 15 points with Regan Smith in second, Elliot Sadler in third and Dillon in fourth.
The win was Dillon’s first Nationwide victory in 31 starts. To top it off, Dillon also cashed in on a $100,000 bonus as part of the Nationwide Series’ Dash 4 Cash promotion.
The only thing that went wrong for Dillon was an air conditioning unit failure in his car which forced him to deal with exceedingly hot temperatures all race long.
“If I had passed out going into one of these corners, at least I gave it all I had,” Dillon said of the threat of heat exhaustion.
But not even the heat could spoil Dillon’s prestigious win.
“The main thing was (crew chief) Danny Stockman gave me a piece that I felt like I could go out there and win with from the moment we unloaded,” Dillon said. “He put me in a position to win, and we did it. I wasn’t going to let this thing go. I wasn’t going to let it slip.”
