TALLADEGA, Ala. – Austin Dillon calls himself “a numbers kind of guy,” and Saturday afternoon at Talladega Superspeedway, a lot of numbers lined up in his favor at the 2.66-mile Alabama facility.
Dillon celebrated his 29th birthday by earning the Busch Pole Award for the 50th annual GEICO 500, punctuating Richard Childress Racing’s 50th anniversary season with the first Talladega pole by a No. 3 car in Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series competition in 25 years.
The grandson of NASCAR Hall of Famer Richard Childress turned a blistering lap of 49.734 seconds (192.544 mph) in the final round of qualifying, outpacing his nearest competitor by a tenth of a second.
That means that Dillon will have a clear view out the windshield of his No. 3 Dow Chevrolet for Sunday’s 188-lap marathon, continuing a big day for RCR after Tyler Reddick’s Xfinity Series victory earlier on.
“Man, this feels great,” Dillon said. “(To win the pole in) RCR’s 50th anniversary and Talladega’s 50th anniversary … it’s big, and my grandfather takes a lot of pride in these speedway races. To come here and get a pole, we certainly felt like we had a car capable of doing that. We just wanted to go out there and do what we did and get a pole. It’s a testament to all of these guys; I just held the wheel straight.
“We’d love to get a win now on Sunday and lock ourselves in the playoffs, because these races are ones that you can really take advantage of,” he continued. “That’s what we’re here to do tomorrow.”
The significance of finally putting the No. 3 back on top of a qualifying pylon at Talladega after a quarter of a century wasn’t lost on Dillon as he reflected on his run in the media center afterward.
“When you correlate all of the numbers together today … and consider that Talladega is really where RCR kind of started in 1969, this is a big deal,” he said. “I’m pumped to be here in the (No.) 3 car. (Crew chief) Danny Stockman and the boys brought a bad fast car here, and we wanted to make some noise.
“I give the credit to all those guys today, but tomorrow it’s up to us to keep it up there and hopefully turn this pole into an iconic win for our company and for this race team.”
Aric Almirola, the most recent Cup Series race winner at Talladega, will join Dillon on the front row on Sunday after a lap of 49.841 seconds (192.131 mph) in the final round with his No. 10 Smithfield Ford.
“Our car has been good since we unloaded. We’ve had a lot of speed in our car,” said Almirola, who led the first round and was the last car out in the final round as a result. “It has felt really drive-able and comfortable in the pack, which is what you need to be aggressive here and to be able to block and makes moves.
“We’ve been fast and comfortable in race conditions, so I’m looking forward to tomorrow and seeing if we can repeat what we did here last October.”
Clint Bowyer and Brad Keselowski, both driving Ford Mustangs like Almirola, will share the second row of the grid after qualifying third and fourth on Saturday. Dillon’s RCR teammate Daniel Hemric was fifth.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, Alex Bowman, Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott and Michael McDowell completed the top dozen and all advanced through both knockout rounds.
Ty Dillon, Austin’s younger brother, was the first driver below the cut line to advance at the end of round one and will start 13th (50.310/190.340) on Sunday in the No. 13 GEICO Chevrolet.
Other notables starting deep in the field include Kurt Busch (14th), Paul Menard (17th), Kevin Harvick (19th) and Martin Truex Jr., who was the fastest Toyota driver in qualifying and rolls off 20th.
Seven-time Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson was a disappointing 21st.
Reddick jumped out of his Xfinity Series car and into Brendan Gaughan’s Cup Series car for time trials, putting the No. 62 Chevrolet 29th on the grid. Gaughan missed qualifying for his son’s First Communion.
Sunday’s GEICO 500 is set for a 2 p.m. ET green flag.