With shades of ‘the Intimidator,’ Dillon earns third in chaotic ‘Dega race – Nascar

RELATED: Results | Standings post-Talladega | Relive the day in photos

TALLADEGA, Ala. — Austin Dillon, driving a Chevrolet with NASCAR’s most famous number — 3 — on its side panels, nearly matched one of Dale Earnhardt’s most extraordinary feats at the exact location it happened, mere days after what would’ve been the 65th birthday of the late, great “Intimidator.”

 
Instead, he still came home with a career-best finish in what was the wildest race the Sprint Cup Series has seen in some time.
 
“We started 17th with three laps to go and finished third,” Dillon said after the GEICO 500. “So, from 17th to third, that was pretty cool. One guy came up to me in the suite (before the race), said Dale’s last win here (in 2000), he came from 15th to first. Maybe if we started 15th, we could have gotten there.”
 
Looking at Dillon’s Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet after the race, you’d never have thought it was a third-place car. It was as banged up as any car after 500 laps at Bristol and appeared to have more tape on its front right quarter panel than 3M has in one of its warehouses.
 

TEAMWORK. We pitted 17 times. Wrecked 4 times. Ran out of tires. We were 32nd 1 lap down. We NEVER quit. Result = P3 pic.twitter.com/PjxAxjE893

— greg osborne (@greg_ozz) May 1, 2016

But you should’ve seen the rest of the field.
 
Dillon’s ride was one of a handful that actually made it to the checkered flag on the lead lap, a borderline miracle given he pitted a whopping 16 times — a race-high, with no other driver hitting pit lane more than 13, including some of those involved in some of the several “Big One(s).”

RELATED: Dillon one of 21 cars involved in ‘The Big One’

 
“We pitted (16) times. That’s amazing,” Dillon said. “The car was killed and we came home with a third-place finish. What a good day.
 
“It’s a testament to my guys. They never panicked today. We’ve panicked a lot this year on certain problems and today was smooth and calm and they handled their situations that they were put through and it was a great race for us. … We’ve been meeting about it the last couple weeks. We can’t lose our minds because sometimes it’s just not your day.”
 
The finish is Dillon’s third top-five of the year, eclipsing his career total (two) since he began running Cup races in 2011. The 26-year-old finds himself in unfamiliar territory 10 races into the season — the top 10 in points standings.
 
Immediately after the race he was able to enjoy his showing, but he may be more thankful he made it out relatively unscathed — his car not included — once he watches a replay of the race.
 
“Truthfully I don’t know everything that happened yet, so I am really excited about my third‑place finish because I know what our team went through today,” said Dillon, currently on pace for his first career Chase for the Sprint Cup berth. “I did see a video of AJ Allmendinger getting out, and he looked pretty shook up. I hope everybody is all right from all these crashes. I haven’t got a chance to look at all of them. I pray they’re all all right.
 
“For me, I’m proud of our team. If you guys can see the car, if you go look at it, you would never expect it to get to third.”
 
Dale, undoubtedly, would be proud, too.