Ty Dillon purposefully pulled himself out of the RCR shadow

Ty Dillon: “Not that it was a negative shadow. I just want people to see me for me.”

Mike Dillon is a former racer that married Tina Childress, Richard Childress’ daughter. They had two sons, Ty Dillon and Austin Dillon. Ty and Austin are the grandchildren of one of the most respected car owners in the garage area.

That’s an awesome thing to be born into, in a lot of ways. However, with that, comes a very large shadow that you might not want to stand in as a racing driver.

Ty Dillon has been racing part-time in the NASCAR Cup Series since 2014. His first 7 starts in the MENCS came with RCR in 2014-15 driving the #33 machine. After that, Ty Dillon made a deliberate attempt to separate himself from the RCR shadow.

In 2016, he drove for 3 different teams. Those teams were Leavine Family Racing, Stewart-Haas Racing and Tommy Baldwin Racing. Last year, he found a home with Germain Racing and ran the full schedule.

Ty Dillon

“As much as I love having a brother in the sport and my family in the sport and my grandfather is an owner and how much I would love to win races and championships for him, I think I needed to break out of that grandson-brother shadow that I had,” Dillon said during the NASCAR Media Tour in Charlotte.

“Not that it was a negative shadow.  I just want people to see me for me.”

Ty Dillon - Germain Racing Driver
Ty Dillon – Germain Racing Driver

“I think it was always kind of there,” Ty explained. “Starting racing, I needed the help. It’s like a business where you need the backing. You have to have the backing of someone who believes in you to get you started.”

“Then, when you’re a person that knows you need to have their own image or you feel like you’re a leader, you eventually break back off and do your own thing because you know that’s what you like to do.”

“That’s what happened for me is when I had the opportunity – and first off there wasn’t really an opportunity at RCR at the time – I knew I was ready and also I knew I had so much more to tell the fans and show the fans and show a lot of people in the sport about who I am.”

“I want people to know me for me and know my life and know who I am,” Dillon continued.  “At the young parts of my career and the beginning stages we needed to be grouped together to get the full impact and now that I feel like I’m at this top level I can start branching off and let people know me.”

“I want to race for Germain Racing and Geico my whole career and win races and championships and build my own brand like Kobe Bryant and the Lakers,” Ty Dillon concluded.

This year, Ty Dillon will again drive for Germain Racing. Ty has a new crew chief for 2018, Matt Borland. Ty Dillon has also run in the NASCAR Xfinity Series since 2012, the whole time, he’s driven for his grandfather.

Brother Austin remains at RCR at the NASCAR Cup Series level, where he’s raced full-time since 2014.

More

Related: Dale Earnhardt Jr talks about a life in his fathers shadow

Related: Matt Borland signed at Germain Racing

Related: Ty Dillon makes the switch to Germain Racing, full-time

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Germain Racing | Ty Dillon | NASCAR

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