Top Dog: Austin Dillon
Austin Dillon had as bad of a start to the season as you can get after the first two races of 2026. The driver of the famed No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet crashed out of both the Daytona 500 and at EchoPark Speedway, which had him sitting 34th in the driver standings.
Dillon began to climb out of his early season points hole by scoring back-to-back top-20 finishes at Circuit of the Americas (19th) and Phoenix Raceway (16th) that brought him up to 29th in the standings going into Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Las Vegas had been a struggle for the No. 3 team over the past three seasons as he finished no higher than 16th and had four finishes of 25th or lower since 2023. This weekend, however, Dillon and his team brought speed right off the truck, which helped him have a consistent and solid run all race long on Sunday (Mar. 15).
The Climb To The Top
Dillon sat near the top of the charts during qualifying, but as the fastest cars came on track at the end of the session, he dropped back to a starting position of 11th, his highest starting spot at Las Vegas since 2022.
In a race that saw only three cautions and the top 10 filled with the best drivers and teams in the sport, Dillon was able to stay in the top 15 picture all race long, making no mistakes on the track or pit road. Dillon held an average running position of 15.87 and avoided speeding penalties in the pits on a day where there were nine such penalties among eight drivers.
Dillon’s future NASCAR Hall of Fame teammate Kyle Busch, on the other hand, struggled all day and lacked the speed that the No. 3 team had, as Busch finished two laps down in 28th. Dillon did not gain any stage points, finishing 14th and 17th in the stages respectively, but he drove his No. 3 Breztri Chevrolet to a 12th-place finish at the end of the day.
Dillon jumped up five spots from 29th to 24th in the driver standings, and he is now 36 points below the cutline for The Chase.
Looking Ahead:
Dillon and his No. 3 team will head to Darlington Raceway next week for the sixth race of the season as he will look to continue his three-race streak of top-20 finishes. Dillon finished 23rd in both races at Darlington last season, and in the Next Gen Era, his highest finish at the track is ninth, which he earned back in the spring of 2022.
Top Dog of the Lower Series
NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series: The top of the leaderboard was full of drivers you would expect for Saturday’s The LiUNA! at Las Vegas (March 14), including Cup Series regulars and O’Reilly Series championship contenders. However, one driver in the top 10 had a slow start to the season and was in need of a good run in Sin City.
It is hard to think of a Joe Gibbs Racing driver as an underdog, but William Sawalich fits the description, as he is still only 19 years old and looking for his first win in the series. He came into the weekend 18th in driver points, and his No. 18 team sat outside the top 20 in owner points.
Sawalich had finishes of 23rd or worse in three of the first four races of the season, including two DNFs, but Saturday was a smooth performance as he came home in ninth place, jumping up to 15th in the driver standings and inching closer to the Chase cutline.
Also, shoutout to Kyle Sieg and Daniel Dye, who brought home top-15 finishes, and Josh Williams, who finished in 16th after failing to qualify for the previous two races.
Small Team Scheme of the Week
It is always great when old sponsors come back into the sport and bring back their iconic colors. An example of this has been with Aaron’s returning to the Cup Series with Zane Smith‘s No. 38 Front Row Motorsports team.
Smith ran this particular scheme last season as well, but I feel that it goes under the radar as it brings us back to the days of the No. 00 Michael Waltrip Racing car sporting similar colors with David Reutimann.
Smith also ran in the top 15 for most of the afternoon after a solid qualifying effort and finished 14th. He sits only nine points behind 16th place in the driver standings, holding 19th place going into Darlington next weekend.
Michael Bellifemini joined Frontstretch in February 2026 as a contributor. Bellifemini was born and raised in New Jersey and graduated from Seton Hall University. He called Seton Hall men's and women's basketball games for their college radio station, 89.5 FM WSOU, and continues to broadcast in the area. Outside of covering NASCAR, Bellifemini is also an avid baseball, football, basketball, and hockey fan and enjoys watching different sports leagues on a daily basis.
Wow! Looks like he is headed to the NA$CAR HoF!
Only if he pays for admission.