Ty Dillon on NASCAR's In-Season Challenge, focusing on mid-field drivers and more: 12 Questions

New York Times

5 days ago

Each week, The Athletic asks the same 12 questions to a different race car driver. Up next: Ty Dillon of Kaulig Racing, who this week faces off with Ty Gibbs in the championship round of the NASCAR In-Season Challenge. This interview has been lightly edited and condensed, but the full version is available on the 12 Questions Podcast.
1. What was one of the first autographs you got as a kid, and what do you remember about that moment?
We went to a bull riding event: PBR (Professional Bull Riders) in Greensboro (N.C.). Ty Murray, the famous bull rider, shared my name. He was married to Jewel, the famous singer, and I remember seeing them sitting there. My grandfather (Richard Childress) walked us over there, and we got his autograph at the PBR.
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In your brother Austin's 12 Questions interview, he said he got Hank Aaron's autograph with you outside the old Braves stadium. Do you remember that at all?
I was probably 4 or 5, so I was a little too young to actually remember meeting Hank. But I still have the ball.
2. What is the most miserable you've ever been inside of a race car?
This year in Mexico City. I did it in reverse order — I had the stomach flu Wednesday night, the night before we flew out. I actually got sick in the airport while we were all sitting at the terminal at Charlotte Douglas. I was still going through the full motions of the stomach bug — coming out both ends.
So that whole 14 hours of travel was very miserable for me getting there. I slept most of the night, and then the next day in practice I was finally hungry and made a really bad decision: I had the tacos they had made for everybody in the garage (from local restaurant Tacos Atarantados).
The tacos were amazing, but my stomach was still messed up. So I was in the car, and that was the first time I felt like, 'I'm gonna make a mess inside the car.' I just didn't know what side it was going to come out of.
Those were the best tacos I've ever had.
I agree.
So were the tacos worth it, even though you got sick?
Well, I went back the next day and got them. And I got them Sunday, too. So I would not pass on those tacos again. It wasn't worth the feeling I had inside the race car (on Friday), but the tacos were worth it. They did not deter me after that.
3. Outside of racing, what is your most recent memory of something you got way too competitive about?
Probably something to do with my brother, I'm sure — competing in golf or anything. We've always competed in everything.
I've backed it down a little bit now since I've had kids. I leave it all for the racetrack. But man, when we were younger, Austin and I would fight and carry on about competing. It didn't matter what it was — paintball, hunting, or any sport we played like basketball, football, golf. We're going to compete and probably get way too overboard, and everybody around us is going to be embarrassed by the way we're acting.
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4. What do people get wrong about you?
People tell me, 'You're different than what I thought you would be' when they get to know me. A lot of people, especially early in my career, thought my brother and I were just … we were very blessed to have a grandfather that owned a race team. But I don't think they realized that we really appreciated the opportunity, and that we learned a lot of the hard work behind it.
People don't realize the gratitude that we do have — or at least for myself, speaking for myself. So a lot of people say, 'You're different than I thought,' and I think most of the time it's in a good way.
5. What kind of Uber passenger are you, and how much do you care about your Uber rating?
I prefer, as an Uber passenger, to not talk — but I will start a conversation every once in a while. I like to talk on my terms, when I'm in the mood. I don't want someone who's just immediately going to start talking and keep going. I'd rather it start with no talking, and then let me bring up the conversation. I know that's very picky.
Uber rating — it's not something I really think about much. I feel like it's got to be good. If my Uber rating is bad, then the person just didn't like me from the jump, and there's nothing I could have controlled.
6. I'm asking each person a wild-card question: The In-Season Challenge has drawn attention to your team lately, but I feel like it's overshadowed how well you've actually been running all year compared to the preseason expectations. What's your view on the season you've had?
I'm grateful you see that, because I feel the same way. … We've run really well. We've had some bad results based off late-race mistakes, but before that, we were running top 15 or top 18. That's kind of where we've been living — and beating a lot of these top teams. It's not all of them in a Hendrick organization, but we usually beat one or two a week. And that's a pretty solid deal for Kaulig Racing. Our points position doesn't really show what we've done.
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What this in-season tournament has done — usually all the focus is on who's going to make the last spot in the (playoffs) and who's winning the race. That's all the TV shows and media usually talk about. But now that the focus has shifted — racing Atlanta (in Round 1) gave us an opportunity to get this far — people are seeing that there are more interesting things going on in the sport.
Our team has been really solid the last three weeks: Eighth, 20th, and 17th (and then 20th at Dover, after this interview was conducted). That's not a bad average finish. We've just executed races better at the end.
7. This is my 16th year doing these 12 Questions interviews, and I'm going back to the first 12 Questions we did together in 2016. Back then, I asked: 'What's a chore you do in your daily life?' And you said, 'I love vacuuming. It's very satisfying. Once I start cleaning something, I can't stop.' You have three kids now; can this still be true?
Actually, I vacuum less but I sweep more. We have three kids and our littlest, Bear, likes to throw all his food on the ground — but it's all in one isolated spot, and you don't want to vacuum a bunch of food and leave it in the vacuum, because I don't dump it every time. So I've become more of a sweeper.
But I'd say my most consistent chore is every Sunday night when I get home from the race, I'm taking the trash and recycling to the road. It's my humbling moment as a dad and a husband. Doesn't matter what I just did in the race three hours ago — I come home and I still have to take out the stinky, overflowing trash and recycling.
Even though most people do that, it's kind of like my funny reminder: 'The trash still has to be to the road by the end of the night.'
8. Other than one of your teammates, name a driver who you would be one of the first people to congratulate in victory lane if they won a race.
My brother, for sure. And Kyle Busch (Kaulig has an alliance with Richard Childress Racing). There are a lot of good guys out there. I wish no ill success on anybody, but I'm probably not going to celebrate with too many of them.
9. How much do you use AI technology, whether for your job or your daily life?
Man, I use ChatGPT a lot for questions. A lot of finance questions, a lot of math questions. I try to incorporate it as much as possible just to learn it, because obviously, it's a wave of technology that's coming.
Hopefully, I race for another 10 years, but there's going to be another part of life that incorporates business and running stuff. So I want to learn that for the next life — how to utilize it best as this wave comes — and be ahead of it.
10. What is a time in your life that you felt was really challenging, but you're proud of the way you responded to it?
Last year, being out of the sport for the second time and running Trucks again, and then just having four or five opportunities (for Cup races) with Kaulig Racing.
Even in that moment, I didn't know what was next in my life or career. It felt like maybe that would be the last year of racing for me.
But I never panicked. I never let it affect my personal life. …
Sometimes you can put so much pressure on yourself in those situations to perform and try to earn something back. But I felt very at peace throughout that whole year. I remember telling my wife, 'I want to carry the way I feel at the racetrack now when I have less opportunities into when I'm full-time again.' And I've tried to do that.
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11. What needs to happen in NASCAR to take the sport to the next level of popularity?
We're doing some good stuff as far as going to new places. I think there should be a raised stake for tracks; they should be competing just as much as teams and drivers. Especially this year — we've had so many great attendance numbers and people showing up. But when a track doesn't, now there's something wrong.
There should be competition there. If your track doesn't hit a certain attendance threshold, you should lose the race — maybe next year, or in two years, depending on your contract. The tracks should be working just as hard to get fans there and create fun, creative weekends.
Also, we need to do a better job of telling the stories of the teams who aren't at the top right now. I've probably been the direct beneficiary of the in-season tournament. We're not a 'key partner team,' but we're beating some of them — teams that have twice the money, twice the people and sometimes five times as many people.
… We have to not focus so much on the top guys. We've worn those stories to death, and those drivers and teams aren't really producing much more energy toward the sport. Maybe they're exhausted from being up there, I don't know. But there's a lot of people throughout the field who have stories to tell, and they should get more opportunities to show their personality.
12. Each week, I ask a driver to give me a question for the next person. Last week's question came from Alex Bowman. He asked: What's the worst interview you've ever done, and why was it with Jeff Gluck?
I've been pretty genuine in all my interviews. And even if I make mistakes, I'll make fun of myself. So it's hard to have a bad interview if you're not afraid to make fun of yourself in the middle of it.
OK, but have you ever had a bad interviewer?
Yeah, but you know — a lot of times you can recognize they're new to it, and they're nervous. It gets rough at times, but I try to encourage them to get through it. I'll try to help them out, walk them through it, give them something. But everybody's on a different path.
Do you have a question for the next person?
What would 10-years-ago-you be proud of you for doing now? If you look back 10 years and look at yourself now, what would you be proud you accomplished? That was a dinner table question my wife and I had.