Austin Dillon Too Slow on Intermediates to Seriously Contend
6 months agoAustin Dillon surprisingly outqualified his teammate Kyle Busch for this weekend's Las Vegas NASCAR Cup Series race, but don't expect him to seriously contend in the race. In 2024 thus far, Kyle Busch has an average speed percentile of 87.90, which ranks 5th in the Cup Series, while Dillon at 9.38 is last among full-timers. Admittedly, both 2024 races so far have been on drafting tracks while Las Vegas is a regular intermediate so perhaps last year's data may be more instructive to predict this race. Busch had a massive difference in speed last year as well (66.36-43.77) but that was even more pronounced on intermediates where Busch had a speed percentile of 75.67 to Dillon's 39.39. Intermediates were both Busch's strongest track type and Dillon's weakest. Since Chevy did not introduce a new chassis for 2024 unlike Ford or Toyota, it's hard to see any reason why that will change.
Source: Racing Reference
Source: Racing Reference