59-year-old Mike Dillon is one of the longest-serving employees at Richard Childress Racing currently. He began his association with the team as the young boyfriend of Richard Childress’s daughter, Tina, and now plays the role of executive vice president decades later. But did he race cars in the intervening period?
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Dillon was an active driver in NASCAR before an injury sidelined him permanently in 2001. He started three races in the Craftsman Truck Series, 154 races in the Xfinity Series, and one race in the Cup Series. In the premier tier, he started the No. 31 Chevrolet as a substitute for Mike Skinner in a 1998 race at Fontana.
He failed to impress, crossing the checkered flag 11 laps down. Another one of his Cup Series appearances came in 1997 when he had to finish the Southern 500 in place of Dale Earnhardt. The Intimidator had experienced dizziness mid-race and Dillon had to take the seat of the No. 3 car as a relief driver.
One of Mike Dillon’s only NASCAR Cup Series appearances came in unusual fashion: After Dale Earnhardt had his dizzy spell in the 1997 Southern 500, Dillon was tabbed as the relief driver and drove Earnhardt’s No. 3 in his stead.
Mike’s son Austin Dillon drives the 3 car today. pic.twitter.com/tITxkddFYu
— Steven Taranto (@STaranto92) December 26, 2024
It is rather a full-circle moment that his son, Austin, drives the same infamous car full-time today. More success came old Dillon’s way in the Xfinity Series. He secured 15 top-10s driving for Parker Racing, ST Motorsports, and Richard Childress Racing in a career that spanned seven years. The injury at Bristol in 2001 pushed him to take on management roles.
When Richard Childress fixed Mike Dillon his first car
The benefactor of the racing organization is all praise for his son-in-law’s character. He said in an employee spotlight video that was released five years back, “Mike Dillon is quite the character. He is his own personality. We just moved him up to executive vice president, and he has really earned it. It wasn’t something that I have given him.”
He continued about the long journey through which Dillon has come, “He has worked his way up from working on old cars up at my farm to… [I] fixed the first old race car for him. I said, ‘Boy! You don’t need to be driving something with a gas tanker. If you’re dating my daughter and are thinking about getting married, you need to get into a real race car.”
Dillon remembered his first meeting with Childress in the same vividness and noted that he did not know a lot about stock car racing back then. However, the duo quickly got used to being around each other. He also remembered how he used to accompany his girl’s father to cleanup jobs in a house that he was building.
Dillon and Childress share one of the most unique relationships in NASCAR. All the achievements of Richard Childress Racing over the past two decades have a strong impression of Dillon on them.
