Austin Dillon plans to be 'aggressive' facing playoff elimination at Bristol Night Race

Tonight is make-or-break for Austin Dillon and the No. 3 team. This run in the NASCAR Playoffs is on the line at Bristol. While Dillon making the postseason is an overachievement in and of itself for this team, making the Round of 12 could possibly give the team validation.

Austin Dillon has made the NASCAR Playoffs five times before. He has finished 11th three times. Could he make another trip to the second round?

The No. 3 team is -11 points to the cutline. Austin Cindric is the next driver ahead of Dillon and the last driver in the Round of 12 as it stands before Bristol. Given that situation, Dillon likely has to pick up stage points to have a chance to advance.

“It’s not going to be easy, by no means,” Dillon said to Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports. “I think we gotta be aggressive to try to get track position, because of the tires. So, I feel comfortable in the car on the long run, that we could maybe be aggressive when it comes to a caution coming out at the right time. So, we’ll see.

“Obviously, we didn’t do what we needed to do. We needed to be in the top-10 here, score stage points, and the opposition is sitting third right now in qualifying. So, he’s in a good spot, and we’ll see how it goes.”

Now, we all know how aggressive Austin Dillon can be. He’s willing to do more than most drivers to win or advance. So, how will that play out in the race? Well, I’m not sure Dillon is alluding to his on-track driving style, but more so talking about pit strategy.

Aric Almirola stayed out on tires in the Xfinity Series race, and it paid off with a win. So, given the trends we see in the Cup Series, we can probably expect tires to last for long, green flag runs.

If the chance presents itself, Dillon and crew chief Richard Boswell could get aggressive on their pit strategy and stay out. Or possibly pit on a different cycle than others in the field to gain track position if that presents itself. We’ll see how it plays out for the 3 team tonight at Bristol. I wouldn’t count Dillon out when it comes to transferring to the next round.

Austin Dillon will be aggressive tonight. Let’s see how that actually manifests and if he manages to make it to the next round with that bold strategy.