Watch the wild video as Austin Dillon turned into oncoming traffic on the Daytona Road Course
IMSA is getting ready for their biggest race of the year. The Rolex 24 at Daytona begins on Saturday.
NASCAR Cup Series driver Austin Dillon is making his first career start in the Rolex 24. He’s making the start with the (Rick Ware Racing) RWR Eurasia. He shares the No. 51 seat with Cody Ware and Salih Yoluc in the LMP2 entry.
Watch the Austin Dillon practice video below.
The driver has a tattoo to mark his famed Daytona 500 victory. He’s using the track time to get better at road course racing.
“If we win this weekend I feel like that will be tattoo worthy. That will definitely be the underdog story,” Dillon told Bob Pockrass ahead of the race.
Dillon isn’t the only NASCAR driver giving sportscars a try. NASCAR champions Chase Elliott and Jimmie Johnson are also making an appearance.
Ahead of Saturday’s start, the teams have taken to the track for a series of practice sessions.
Austin Dillon makes mistake then drives backwards on Daytona Road Coure
A practice mistake from Austin Dillon has turned heads.
Heading into turn six, Dillon locked up the tires. He then went straight as the car failed to turn. He was heading for the tire barrier.
To get the car to turn, Dillon let off the brake and used the runoff room that’s there to help in these very situation. However, from there, things went sideways.
Instead of coming to a stop and doing a 180 burnout to loop around, Dillon instead just went around the tire barrierands re-entered the track in turn seven.
According to fan reports, this caught the attention of IMSA. Who reportedly stated, “That was the dumbest thing we’ve ever seen.”
The move put Dillon in head on traffic. That tire barrier separates cars heading into turn one from cars entering turn 6.
At the very moment that he went around the barrier, cars were entering turn one. Dillon was head on with traffic in the video below.
He was well off into the runoff room in turn one. However, if any of the cars did the same thing Dillon did, locked up the brakes and ran wide, then they would have found themselves in the runoff room. That could have resulted in a head-on collision.
And, there’s video…
Related: Qualifying results for the Rolex 24 at Daytona
Austin Dillon goes backwards in Rolex 24 practice
Links
Austin Dillon | Rick Ware Racing | Daytona International Speedway | IMSA
