With Regan Smith at home in North Carolina, anticipating the birth of his second child, NASCAR XFINITY Series regular Ty Dillon has been tapped to sub. Dillon will slide behind the wheel of Tommy Baldwin Racing’s No. 7 Chevrolet in today’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 400 at Chicagoland Speedway.
The team announced the news on social media Sunday morning.
NEWS: @tydillon will drive the No.7 @NikkoRC / @TMNTMaster Raphael Chevrolet in today's #TMNT400. #TeamTurtle 🐢
— Tommy Baldwin Racing (@TBR_Racing) September 18, 2016
Dillon practiced the car throughout the weekend as Smith flew home to North Carolina. Meanwhile, Smith kept fans updated on his status periodically through social media, most recently confirming that the baby still hadn’t been born on Saturday morning.
No baby yet, still a waiting game and as anybody with kids knows this process is completely unpredictable.
— Regan Smith (@ReganSmith) September 17, 2016
Smith started all 26 races of the regular season before missing the Chase opener, tallying one top 5 and two top 10s to date in his first season with TBR. The one-car team has struggled this season, sitting outside the top 30 in owner points heading into this race.
Dillon, by comparison has eight Cup starts this year, running five races with Circle Sport-Leavine Family Racing and starting three times in a substitute role for the injured Tony Stewart earlier this season. While Dillon has no top 5s or top 10s in any of his 2016 starts, he did tally a sixth-place finish after replacing Stewart early on in the spring race at Talladega Superspeedway. He’ll start 33rd in Sunday’s race as qualifying for the event was rained out.
The move is a natural fit as TBR has an alliance with Dillon’s employer, Richard Childress Racing including engine and chassis support. Dillon is currently competing in the XFINITY Series, where he’s one of 12 drivers that will compete for that Chase championship beginning with next weekend’s standalone race at Kentucky Speedway. Grandfather Richard Childress indicated this weekend Dillon will run “almost” a full schedule in XFINITY next season as he tries to put together a full Sprint Cup Series program for 2017.
Aaron Bearden is a Frontstretch alumnus who’s come back home as the site’s Short Track Editor. When he isn’t working with our grassroots writers, he can be found talking about racing on his Morning Warmup newsletter, pestering his wife/dog or convincing himself the Indiana Pacers can win an NBA title.
Dallas won!
Oath taken by TV crew before each product:
I swear to talk the chase, for the whole chase, and nothing but the chase, so help me Brian.
Let’s see. The Kyle Busch show versus Dallas/Washington? The Kyle Busch show versus Dallas/Washington? The Kyle Busch show versus Dallas/Washington? Sorry Brian. Your product and announcers make it a no-brainer. You got lucky with the Bears playing Monday night. But you’re still up against the Rio Paralympics on the main NBC network.