Ty Dillon wins Grit Chips 200, builds the foundation for next generation Childress team

For a moment, it looked as if Kyle Busch’s near year-long exile from the Camping World Truck Series would end with a victory. Instead, Busch reported a flat tire with about six laps to go, surrendered the lead, and watched as Ty Dillon won his first career NASCAR race in the Jeff Foxworthy Grit Chips 200 on Friday night at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
The victory was a long-time coming for the younger Dillon. The defending ARCA Racing Series champion is competing for the same team that won the Truck Series championship last year (with brother Austin), leading many to predict quick success for the NASCAR rookie.
Instead, it took 14 races for Dillon to break through, making it all the sweeter for Dillon, father Mike, and grandfather/truck owner -- Richard Childress.
Yours truly attended Kentucky in July and witnessed Austin Dillon’s breakthrough victory in that division. The scene that unfolded in the media center following Friday night’s race was remarkably similar to the celebration that took place roughly two months ago in Sparta, KY.
It’s a family affair at Richard Childress Racing, especially in regards to the team’s future with Austin and Ty Dillon. Nothing against Paul Menard, Jeff Burton, and Kevin Harvick -- they’re all massively talented drivers. But they don’t personify the chemistry of Childress, Dale Earnhardt and Kirk Shelmerdine. That was a family that won four Sprint Cup Series championships, chemistry that could be reborn between Childress, his staff, and his grandsons.
Remember the 2012 season. For nothing else, it may be remembered as the genesis of the Childress Renaissance.
A more in-depth recap, complete race results, and video can be found after the jump.

Kyle Busch clearly had the dominant truck in his first Series start since last November.

He led the most laps, 75, and was leading with six to go when Busch first reported that his tire was going down. Dillon took the lead one lap later and never looked back, making Busch wonder what could have been.
It was during the post-race press conference that Busch conceded that he hadn’t had a flat and made contact with the wall only because he was pushing so hard to fend off Dillon.

“He had a lot better handle on the bottom of the race track than we did, especially throughout the longer run,” Busch said. “He could hold the bottom better than I could. There, when it’s time to race, when a guy catches you, you’ve got to go somewhere else.

“You’ve got to go to the top, and you try to push and get sideways and hit the fence. There’s no room to catch it up there. It was all I could do to push it as hard as I could.”
The Dillon victory combined with a 13^th-place finish from championship leader Timothy Peters has really consolidated the standings. Peters lead has shrunk to just six points over James Buescher and nine over Dillon. Buescher finished Friday night’s race in third.

Parker Kligerman, Aric Almirola, Kyle Larson, Joey Coulter, Nelson Piquet Jr., Matt Crafton and Kurt Busch completed the top-10.

Audiovisual

Final Laps: Well kiss my grits, it’s Dillon! (via TheOfficialNASCAR)

Post-Race Reactions: Grit Chips 200 (via TheOfficialNASCAR)

Race Results

# = Rookie, Fin = Finish, Str = Start, Pts = Total Points, BPs = Lap Leader Bns Pts, TLd = Times Led, LLd = Laps Led. (i) Ineligible for driver points in this series
Average Speed: 136.733 MPH Time of Race: 1 Hrs, 27 Mins, 51 Secs. Margin of Victory: 3.227 Seconds
Lead Changes: 20 among 8 drivers Cautions: 3 for 16 laps Attendance: 28,300