Austin Dillon has been facing massive hurdles in winning NASCAR races for some years now. Running his 10th full-time season at the Cup level, Dillon has managed to secure only four victories in 374 starts to date. He achieved his last win at the 2022 Coke Zero Sugar 400 in Daytona. His most recent outing in Phoenix ended in a 32nd place finish. Now people are raising eyebrows about whether Dillon is still in the game due to nepotism. But Denny Hamlin has come to his defence.

Hamlin recognizes Austin Dillon’s efforts

Nepotism is neither new in sports nor in NASCAR. In 2005, out of a total of 76 drivers, 23 had family ties to current or former drivers. But not all cases turned out for the worse. For instance, Dale Earnhardt Jr carved out a glittering racing career despite being the son of a legendary NASCAR driver. But others do not live up to family expectations, and that bothers the fandom.

While Dillon holds four Cup race wins in a 10-year Cup career, Kyle Busch clinched three wins in his inaugural year at Richard Childress Racing. Some fans question Dillon’s worth in driving the No. 3 car, previously graced by Dale Earnhardt and Kevin Harvick.

However, Denny Hamlin recently laid to rest any doubts about Dillon’s nepotism. He gave him brownie points for consistent efforts: “You know, he’s on a bad run, for sure. You know he wants to turn around. That kid’s got drive. He is as competitive as I am, maybe more. He’s certainly more athletic than I am. I play a lot of sports with Austin Dillon. He is competitive, it’s not like he is happy running where he is running.”

Then he drew parallels to the bigger picture, claiming the Chevrolets and RCR team as a whole were running a bad streak. “It was kind of in order of the Chevy guys, it seems like Hendrick was the best of them…in order of who’s been good as a Chevy team: it was Trackhouse, then it was RCR. So they certainly got some stuff to figure out, only one way to go for RCR after this weekend.”

Denny Hamlin may be sounding very lenient and accepting in his approach towards Austin Dillon now. But the situation was polar opposite around 12 years back.

Hamlin himself labeled Dillon as a kid of nepotism over a decade ago

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Denny Hamlin’s kind attitude has evolved with leaps and bounds over the past decade. At the Texas Nationwide Race in 2012, Austin Dillon, who finished 6th, apparently reacted to Hamlin finishing 5th by crowding him on pit road following the race. Hamlin answered in kind, ramming Dillon’s car into the wall.

Hamlin was fuming with agitation in a post-race interview, as he lashed out at Dillon’s perks due to nepotism: “He got his ride because of his name.” He further said, “If he’s points racing, you can’t crowd a guy that’s running (just to win). I’m on the bottom. I’m all the way to the apron. I’m doing everything I can and after the checkered flag, he wants to run into me? So I ran him into the fence.”

Well, time heals all conflict, as is evident from Denny Hamlin’s current stance towards Austin Dillon. Dillon continues to struggle with wins in Cup races. Do you think he is close to finally living up to his family name soon, or he is just not cut out for a legendary Cup career like his No. 3 predecessors?

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