After closing last year in 15th following a win at Richmond, Austin Dillon went to Daytona and Atlanta this season aiming to build momentum. Instead, the opening stretch of the 2026 Cup season has put him on the back foot. Two races in, he sits 34th in the standings with 17 points. Now, as NASCAR is set to head to its first road course stop at Circuit of the Americas, Dillon arrives with a view of himself that looks much different from the stat sheet.
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Road courses have long been a stumbling block compared with his output on ovals, in part because he did not grow up racing in that discipline. His 45 Cup starts on road courses do little to support his narrative of being an improved road course driver.
Dillon’s average finish sits at 23.5, placing him in the thick of the pack more often than not, even as steady work in simulators and endurance events has nudged progress forward inch by inch.
In fact, Dillon has two top-10 finishes on road courses in 16 years. One came at COTA in 2022 with a 10th-place run, the other at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval later that year. Yet when asked to assess his road-course craft, Dillon decided to talk about his growth in road-course racing.
The No. 3 RCR driver said to journalist Chris Weaver, “I think I’ve done a much better job of showing pace over the runs. I think that, uh, when you get in a big group of cars, you got to be super aggressive and know where to position your car. I think that’s where I’ve lacked for a long time, is the positioning.”
“I’ve got pace, but I got to position my car in better places so I can keep people away from making too much offense. But overall, I’ve become a much better road racer over the years than where I started. and it and it’s become a fun challenge and something I get excited to go do,” he continued.
The stats, however, show that while Dillon’s career average across all tracks hovers near 18.7, his road course finishes often land in the 20s and 30s, a gap he has tried to close through work beyond the weekly grind.
That effort has taken him outside the Cup bubble. Dillon entered the Rolex 24 at Daytona in 2021, driving on a hybrid layout of oval and infield sections to improve his road-course runs. He has also logged endurance miles at COTA in World Racing League events to stack laps and sharpen instincts.
Besides that, Dillon has also been using Richard Childress Racing’s simulator to work on braking zones and corner entry, two areas he believes can improve his run. For 2026, he is also adapting to another variable, a 750-horsepower engine package built for short tracks and road courses. However, whether that groundwork turns the tide will become clear on Sunday.
