NASCAR CUP SERIES
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
DAYTONA 500 MEDIA DAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTES
FEBRUARY 12, 2025
Ty Dillon, driver of the No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet – DAYTONA 500 Media Day Quotes
REGARDING GETTING INTO IT WITH BROTHER AUSTIN DILLON AT BOWMAN GRAY
“There was a lot made of that on Monday and Tuesday and a lot of people were talking about it. He and I saw each other Monday and never even talked about it. I called him on Wednesday and I was like, ‘dude, do we have a problem?’. He said, ‘no it was fine and we were just racing hard’. It was just racing and he and I have an understanding with each other, a respect for each other, we are brothers and we understand what racing is. I think if you go back and break that down, it was just a couple of things, and we are racing at Bowman Gray and there is no room. He is trying to do his job, and I am trying to do my job. It’s an exhibition race. Now if we are at Vegas, a bigger track, or something like that, then that would not be acceptable and neither one of us would want that. If you go back over time, he and I have respectively raced each other probably cleaner than anybody in this sport. People made a lot of comments about that and I think people want to egg on the Dillon brother feud, but its not a thing. So, we trust each other and we work together and we also respect each other. But we have a job to do and winning races and that night our job was to finish in the top two. I knew that was what he was trying to do and I was too.”
WHAT DOES IT MEAN WHEN AS A DRIVER YOU FEEL THE TEAM IS BEHIND YOU FULLY, TOP TO BOTTOM?
“Its everything. Confidence in the driver it is everything and you build that confidence with trust. I feel like I have gone into places where you feel like, you know, I bring my own confidence in this. But when you know a team owner, a team president, a crew chief, a technical director….when everyone is giving you that authentic confidence, and they are not just pumping your head full of things, but they are being honest with you. I think transparency is the best way to build confidence in each other. And that is what I felt ever since the few races I ran last year with Kaulig and in the offseason. No one is afraid to say what you need to work on, but they are also not afraid to say what you have done good and excel on. That is what you crave as a person, and you just want transparency within that. I have been to places where they don’t say anything to you. You don’t know whether you had a good day or a bad day. I am a pretty active brain person, and I can drive myself in a tizzy when nobody talks to me and those are the dark places to be in. And you want to be in a place where communication is clear and honest. It has been very apparent from the offseason to the start of the season and now so to speak that the bullets are beginning to fly, we will see how that continues, and I believe it will and that is what is going to make us a good team.”
WHAT IS IT LIKE TO KIND OF BE BACK IN YOUR OWN WORLD AS TO SAY?
“I saw that on Dale’s (Junior) podcast and was pretty perplexed. It wasn’t that I left to do my own thing. Sometimes in life there are no more doors to open and you have to open your own doors. It’s not like I left to try and figure it out on my own, I had to. If I wanted to provide for my family and continue the career that I have wanted my whole life, then I had to go find something. There was nothing there for me and I am lucky that things have come back together in my career, and I have worked very hard. I know it just now seems like I have come back to the fold at RCR, and I wish they had expounded on that more but for the last two and a half years I have been with my grandfather sitting in meeting not only at RCR but at his other businesses and being right beside him and its been some of the greatest moments of my life being just to see how he operates and works. He is such a special businessperson and I am also getting to have those special moments with him as a grandson. But my career and my life, I wouldn’t change the fact that I had to go out and fight for what I wanted. It has made me a better person and its made me have more gratitude and appreciation for the opportunity that I have today to be with Kaulig Racing and to be back associated with RCR with our technical alliance. It wasn’t that I left, but that I had to fight for what I wanted and had to go out and find it. Sometimes the path comes back home to where you belong.”
A LOT OF PERSONALITY IN THAT BUILDING. HOW HAVE YOU FOUND THAT YOUR OWN PERSONALITY BLENDS IN THERE?
“I have always found that just being me is enough. If I am me consistently, then everybody will understand me for that. We have some awesome personalities like you mentioned and AJ (Allmendinger) is one of the most determined people you can know, and you can use those personalities to make yourself better. I am so excited to work with AJ this year and I love his fight that he has had not only in the race car but for his career. Then you have Chris Rice who is a gregarious guy and always having fun, but there is always this underlying that he wants to win. And that is no B.S. and that runs through Kaulig and everyone wants to win. Matt Kaulig is a winner and he has won in everything that he has done away from the racing and he expects nothing less from us at the track. So, I love that man. I love being around the team, I love being around the guys which is important. It’s all about racing and winning races and we are going to do what it takes to make that happen.”
ARE THERE HARD FEELINGS STILL THERE?
“For the other teams?”
YES
“I have a unique perspective as a driver and my grandfather is an owner in NASCAR. So, I understand there are certain needs that need to be fulfilled than others. And there are certain things that have to play out and that is just business. And sometimes it is just business whether it works or not and you have to make the best decision as an owner for your company. And I know in some of those situations, I just got caught up in those decisions and you just can’t have hard feelings. I don’t have hard feelings towards anybody in my career. I have taken those ups and downs and was it a disappointment? Absolutely. Nobody wants to be let go from a job and moved on from. But you just take what you learn, and you don’t have a bad attitude about it. I don’t think I lost any friends over it at places I have left from or not been at. So, you just take what you learn, and you bring it to your next opportunity. If I were still bitter about that, I wouldn’t be able to perform here.”
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