Austin Dillon is Richard Childress’ grandson, and it seems the entrepreneurial spirit has been passed down to Dillon. He has plenty of business ventures outside of racing, and the family connections at Richard Childress Racing have made many wonder whether or not Dillon could be a team owner in the future. Joel Edmonds and Freddie Kraft on Door, Bumper, Clear each said that Dillon may be running RCR at some point in the future, but, could it happen soon like Kraft claims?
Austin Dillon has a lot going on outside of racing the 3 car for his grandfather’s race team. He co-owns Team Dillon Management with his brother Ty, and Austin also owns a Professional Bull Riding team. He has plenty of business ventures, and he is gaining a lot of business experience including working with race car drivers.
With the family connections, including his dad, Mike, being an executive at RCR, Dillon likely has a role there as long as he wants it. Childress’ succession plan may include Dillon taking over the race team at some point, however, the timeline is murky. Dillon is 33 years old, which means he has plenty of driving years left, so, it may be a while. However, could it come sooner than expected?
Richard Childress Racing has recently made a commitment to their Xfinity Series team for the near future. They signed Jesse Love for 2024, and he may be the driver they build around in the future. On top of that, they re-signed Austin Hill. Hill made an interesting comment when he was on the Dale Jr. Download saying that a Cup Series opportunity could open up for him in the near future.
Austin Hill in this clip specifically mentions the opportunity for a third chartered team to open up at RCR. Maybe that could happen, but charters are very hard to come by. On top of that, Jesse Love probably was not signed just to run Xfinity for the rest of his career.
Whether or not the momentum is actually there is a question, but all of the pieces are there for Austin Dillon’s ride to potentially be in jeopardy in the near future. If Jesse Love starts winning and Austin Hill Keeps winning, then Childress may have a conundrum on his hands. Does he go with Austin Dillon, or does he give one of his Xfinity Series drivers the chance they have been hoping for?
Should his driving career with the team end in the near future, it is certainly possible that Dillon will join the ownership group at RCR in some capacity. It is not unprecedented for drivers to own other race teams they compete against on a weekly basis. 23XI Racing is an example of this with Denny Hamlin owning 23XI Racing but competing for Joe Gibbs Racing.
As a result, if Dillon moves on to another race team to drive, then maybe he could start working on getting into the ownership group at RCR. This may be far-fetched, but, it’s still an interesting possibility.
Dillon will likely always have something for him at RCR throughout his career. However, with young drivers joining the fray, maybe that capacity could change.
