Photo Credit: Noel Lanier
NASCAR WIRE SERVICE —- LAS VEGAS, Nevada – Ty Dillon’s two NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts to begin the season haven’t distracted him from his goal of winning the NASCAR XFINITY Series championship.
The 24-year-old No. 3 Chevrolet driver ranks third in the standings in the series where names are made – only five points behind first-place Elliott Sadler – after finishing 13th at Daytona and fifth at Atlanta to open up the season.
Dillon leads Richard Childress Racing’s full-time XFINITY Series driver contingent of Brandon Jones and Brendan Gaughan to Las Vegas Motor Speedway for Saturday’s Boyd Gaming 300 (4 p.m. ET on FS1) – the first race of the three-event NASCAR Goes West trip.
“I think last season we had a good couple of weeks during the West Coast races, but this year we’ll look to build on that,” said Dillon, who posted two top-10 finishes in the XFINITY Series’ three-race visit to the Pacific last March. “I’d love to be able to go out and win a race and lock this team into the Chase; that is the ultimate goal. But we also realize that these next three races are a grind and it’s important to do well and set the tone for after the Easter break.”
Jones and Gaughan have jumped out to strong starts this season as well. Jones sits fourth in the XFINITY Series, trailing Sadler by only six points, while Gaughan is in sixth, 10 markers off the lead.
Jones, 19, leads the Sunoco Rookie of the Year standings. He has never made an XFINITY Series start at Las Vegas, but finished fifth there last season in a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race.
“We ran top-five all day and had a lot of speed (in the Truck Series race last year),” Jones said. “I think that’s what I like most about Las Vegas, you can carry a lot of speed around that track. I anticipate seeing a lot of the same conditions in the NASCAR XFINITY Series race this weekend.”
The home crowd will be pulling for Las Vegas native Gaughan, who placed sixth at LVMS last season and has a 9.5 average finish at the desert oval. Gaughan won the 2003 NCWTS race at his home track.
“Las Vegas Motor Speedway is another track that has aged and tires wear out now,” Gaughan said. “It’s a nice place to race where Goodyear can bring the tire they want to bring. It ages, it slips and slides, so it’s another fun place and for me its home. It’s Vegas.”
