RIDGEWAY, Va. – Paul Menard wove his way through the crowd of media surrounding Austin Dillon’s car following Sunday’s race at Martinsville Speedway and approached his Richard Childress Racing teammate.
Oh boy, here we go. After Menard and Dillon tangled on the track and had harsh words about each other on the radio, perhaps everyone was about to witness a confrontation.
Nope. Instead, Menard extended his hand and pulled Dillon in for seemingly kind words. No problem there, Dillon said.
“We worked it out on the racetrack,” Dillon said. “… I think we were all good. I knew we were fine. He surely hadn’t heard what I said on the radio, either.”
Dillon winced. No, Menard hadn’t heard the angry comments yet – but it was only a matter of time before he would.
“I’ll have to explain myself on that one,” Dillon said. “I probably should keep my mouth shut. I’m working on it. You (media) guys listen to me a lot more now that we’re up front, so I’ve got to work on me as far as speaking up.”
For NASCAR's sake, let's hope Dillon keeps talking.
Full of confidence and swagger, Dillon, 25, often seems unafraid of being a lightning rod and wouldn’t mind mixing things up in a sport where most drivers choose their words carefully.
Everyone is listening to Dillon a lot more these days. The third-year driver has emerged as a Chase for the Sprint Cup contender for the first time and sits eighth in the series standings with five finishes of 11th or better in the first six races.
At Martinsville, despite all the drama, he tied the best result of his career by finishing fourth.
Clearly, he’s a driver on the rise. But he’s also ruffling a lot of feathers in the NASCAR fan base along the way.
PHOTOS: 2016 Sprint Cup race winners
Fans don’t seem to like Dillon’s cowboy hat, his pedigree (he’s the grandson of team owner Richard Childress) or radio communications directed toward his team (the pit crew has struggled at times) and competitors.
Judging from fan reactions, many already have decided Dillon is a spoiled kid who whines when things don’t go his way. Kevin Harvick’s 2013 comment about Dillon and his brother Ty having “no respect for what they do in this sport” and getting “everything fed to them with a spoon” didn’t help. Neither did Denny Hamlin saying Dillon “got his ride because of his name” in 2012.
But the truth is, NASCAR needs Austin Dillon. There's still too much corporate-speak in racing -- and with Tony Stewart about to retire after this season, there figures to be even less real talk in 2017.
Dillon and his shoot-from-the-hip style might remedy some of that.
“Man, I’m a fiery guy,” he said. “I don’t want to go out here and run bad. I show my emotions. I’m not good at hiding it and I’m not a real good loser. Hopefully I can be a real good winner.”
Ultimately, that’s what will matter. He hasn’t won a Sprint Cup Series race yet, so any trash talk seems premature.
But you get the sense sometimes it’s on the tip of his tongue. He’d love to inject some character into what can seem like a stale series.
Recently, Dillon attended UFC 196 and tweeted his support for brash, cocky fighter Conor McGregor. McGregor is a polarizing figure, to be sure. But NASCAR could use a driver with McGregor’s penchant for promoting events through entertaining rants.
Could Dillon be NASCAR’s McGregor? Maybe. He just needs to win a race first.
Follow Gluck on Twitter @jeff_gluck
