Ty Reed Dillon (born February 27, 1992) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 10 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Kaulig Racing and part-time in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, driving the No. 25 Ram 1500 for Kaulig Racing. He has also competed in what is now the ARCA Menards Series, what are now the ARCA Menards Series East and West, and what is now known as the NASCAR Canada Series in the past.
Dillon is the 2011 ARCA Racing Series champion and was the series' youngest champion at nineteen years, seven months, and nineteen days until Ty Gibbs broke this record when he won the 2021 ARCA Menards Series championship at nineteen years, zero months, and nineteen days.
Dillon has spent most of his NASCAR career driving for Richard Childress Racing and affiliated teams. RCR is owned by his grandfather Richard Childress. He is the younger brother of fellow NASCAR driver Austin Dillon, who drives RCR's No. 3 Cup Series car full-time. His father is RCR general manager Mike Dillon, who is a retired NASCAR driver.
Racing career Early career
Dillon began his racing career in go-karts and Bandoleros. Moving up to the K&N Pro Series East in 2009, he competed for the series championship in 2010, finishing thirteenth in points despite only competing in eight races of the series ten-race schedule. He scored one win in the series, in August 2010 at Gresham Motorsports Park.
After making three starts and winning twice, at Kansas Speedway and Rockingham Speedway, in the ARCA Racing Series in 2010, Dillon ran his first full season in the series in 2011, winning seven times on his way to winning the series championship. He defeated Chris Buescher by a 340-point margin for the championship, but lost the series rookie-of-the-year award to Buescher by two points.
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Dillon made his debut in the Camping World Truck Series in 2011, finishing eighteenth at Kentucky Speedway, in preparation for running the full series schedule for Richard Childress Racing in 2012. In only his second Truck Series start at Texas Motor Speedway, he finished third. At Homestead, he finished sixth, right in front of his brother Austin, who was crowned champion that night after the race was called due to rain.
In the 2012 NextEra Energy Resources 250 at Daytona, he finished ninth. The following race at Martinsville saw Dillon score his best career finish, 2nd, finishing behind teammate Kevin Harvick. He recorded top-ten finishes in each of the first five Truck Series races of the year. On August 31, he scored his first career Truck Series win at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Returning to the Camping World Truck Series in 2013, Dillon went on to win at Kentucky Speedway in the Camping World Truck Series on June 27 of that year. In late August 2013, Dillon was leading the final lap of the Truck Series' first race in Canada against seventeen-year-old rookie Chase Elliott. In the final turn, Dillon and Elliott made contact, with Dillon winding up hitting the tire barrier and Elliott winning the race. Dillon afterward stated that the next time they raced each other "he won't finish the race". At Texas, Dillon won the 100th race for a No. 3 car/truck in NASCAR.
Dillon finished second in the 2013 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series standings, behind Matt Crafton; he was named the series' Most Popular Driver at the season-ending awards banquet.
Part-time (2014–2021) In 2014, Dillon returned to the Truck Series for the Mudsummer Classic at Eldora Speedway, racing the same truck he had driven in the previous year's race. Dillon finished 5th in the event. Dillon later entered the final race of the season in the No. 9 for NTS Motorsports in place of Brennan Newberry, finishing 7th.
In 2015, Dillon drove three races in the No. 33 Chevrolet for GMS Racing at Daytona, Atlanta, and Eldora, where he earned two top-tens in these races. Dillon drove one race in the No. 31 Chevrolet for NTS Motorsports at Bristol, where he crashed late in the race.
Dillon returned to the CWTS in 2017 at Martinsville, driving the No. 99 Chevrolet Silverado for MDM Motorsports and finished fifth. Dillon also ran at Eldora for the Mudsummer Classic, finishing twelfth.
Rackley W.A.R. (2024)
On December 29, 2023, Rackley W.A.R. announced that Dillon would drive the No. 25 truck full-time in 2024, his first full truck season since 2013. Dillon stepped out of the seat prior to the Kansas race in favor of Dawson Sutton, with Dillon assuming role as his coach and mentor.
Kaulig Racing (2026) On February 13, 2026, Kaulig announced that Dillon would run in the No. 25 Ram 1500 at Atlanta, an "all-star" seat.
Dillon would race at Rockingham during the Cup Series' bye week, after the original scheduled driver, Corey LaJoie, would drive the No. 10 in the truck series, replacing a suspended Daniel Dye.
Xfinity Series
In early June 2012, Dillon made his debut in the Nationwide Series in the 5-hour Energy 200 at Dover International Speedway. In July, he finished third in the first Nationwide Series race held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. In August 2013, it was announced that Dillon would be moving full-time to the Nationwide Series for 2014, where he would drive the No. 3 Chevrolet for RCR, replacing brother Austin.
Dillon won his first career Nationwide Series pole at Las Vegas. He won a second pole in Kentucky. His third career pole came at Kansas.
On July 26, 2014, at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Dillon got by Kyle Busch on the final restart and held off Busch to win the race. Dillon finished 2nd to Chase Elliott in the 2014 NNS Rookie of the Year standings.
In 2015, Dillon began with a third-place finish at the season opener at Daytona. On August 8, 2015, at Watkins Glen, Dillon was involved in a huge fight with Regan Smith when Dillon dumped Smith in turn one and caused Smith to finish in the 20th position. Despite having no wins, Ty Dillon finished a career-best third-place in the final point standings for 2015 with a career-high in top-tens (25) and top-fives (twelve).
In 2016, at the season-opening race at Daytona, Dillon scored his fourth career Xfinity Series pole and his first since the 2014 season. Dillon brought home a $100,000 bonus by winning the Dash 4 Cash at Richmond, finishing second, after the three other Dash 4 Cash drivers all crashed out of the race in the same wreck, late in the going. He finished 2nd to Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the race. Coming back to Daytona, Dillon drove a very special Bass Pro Shops/NRA Museum paint scheme for the July 4th weekend, in which he finished 14th.
For 2016, NASCAR used the Chase format in the Xfinity Series. Dillon made the Chase in 2016 on points but was eliminated after a close battle with Justin Allgaier. Dillon finished fifth in points for 2016 with five season-best second-place finishes (Richmond, both Iowa races, Dover during the chase, and Homestead).
Dillon ran 27 Xfinity races in 2017; he did not run the Iowa races in June and July, Road America, Mid-Ohio, Kentucky in September, or Homestead. Although he moved up full-time to the Cup Series in 2017, Dillon continued to drive the No. 3 Chevrolet Camaro for RCR, but now, he drove on a part-time basis. At the Xfinity opener at Daytona, Dillon was running up front until the last restart, when he ran out of fuel and finished 19th. After two more bad finishes, Dillon began a four-race streak of Top 10 finishes. He ended the season with sixteen top-tens.
In 2018, Dillon ran a few Xfinity races in the No. 3 Camaro as other drivers were sharing the same ride. He did not run any races in the series in 2019 and 2020.
On January 27, 2021, it was announced that Dillon would drive for Joe Gibbs Racing in their No. 54 Toyota part-time in the Xfinity Series in 2021, running the season opener at Daytona, Homestead, Las Vegas, and Talladega in the spring. He joined Our Motorsports for the Charlotte race in May.
Cup Series Part-time (2014–2016) On July 15, 2014, RCR announced Dillon would make his Sprint Cup Series debut in the No. 33 with Hillman-Circle Sport LLC in partnership with RCR in the Oral-B USA 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. After qualifying 29th, he finished 25th. Dillon returned to the No. 33 for the Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500 at Phoenix International Raceway, qualifying 26th and finishing 27th.
In September 2014, sponsor Yuengling and RCR announced they would field the No. 33 for Dillon at the 2015 June Pocono race. On December 9, RCR stated Dillon would drive the No. 33 for Hillman-Circle Sport in the Daytona 500.
In 2016, Dillon joined Circle Sport – Leavine Family Racing, splitting the No. 95 with Michael McDowell with sponsorships from Cheerios and Nexteer, among others. Like the 33, the 95 had an alliance with RCR. Dillon also ran the No. 14 for Stewart–Haas Racing, substituting for an injured Tony Stewart. Dillon would finish seventh at Talladega for the running of the GEICO 500, but the credit would go to Stewart since he started the race. At Pocono, Dillon would lead his first three laps in Sprint Cup competition. Dillon took over for Regan Smith in the No. 7 Tommy Baldwin Racing Chevy at the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 400 as Smith flew back to North Carolina to await the birth of his child.
On November 28, 2016, it was announced that Dillon would replace veteran Casey Mears, who has been with Germain for six years, in the No. 13 GEICO Chevrolet for Germain Racing in 2017. Along with GEICO, Twisted Tea was a primary sponsor of Germain Racing for a few races in 2017.
Germain Racing (2017–2020)
Dillon began the 2017 season with a crash in the Daytona 500. In the next race at Atlanta, he scored a 15th-place outing. The next week at Las Vegas, he finished in 21st place. He followed this up with a 16th-place finish at Phoenix, a 22nd-place finish at Martinsville, and then a 17th-place finish at Texas. He followed this finish with a fifteenth-place finish at Bristol and then a 26th-place finish at Richmond. At Talladega, Dillon finished a career-best thirteenth after avoiding the "Big One". He followed this finish with a fourteenth-place outing at Kansas. This was followed by a 36th-place finish at Charlotte. Dillon led 27 laps at Dover and was running with the leaders, but wrecked in overtime and finished fourteenth. At Daytona, Dillon had the lead with three to go but faded to sixteenth on the final restart. At Kentucky, Dillon finished 33rd.
In the second part of 2017, Dillon managed to score eight top-20 finishes, including two then-career-best finishes of 11th. He finished 24th in the final points standings.
After a rough first half of 2018, Dillon managed to avoid several 'big ones' to finish a then career-best sixth place in the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona. This was Dillon's first career top-ten finish in the Cup Series in 71 starts.
To start the 2019 season, Dillon managed to score another sixth-place finish, reminiscent of his previous Daytona top-ten. Once again, he avoided multiple large wrecks to get sixth place. Dillon managed to run as high as fifth place in overtime. At Bristol, Dillon won his first stage ever after holding off Clint Bowyer in a two-lap shootout after a restart in stage 1, finishing the race in 15th. In the GEICO 500, Dillon won his second stage in his career, winning the first stage. Dillon also scored his first-ever top-five finish and highest finish in his cup career at the rain-shortened July Daytona race, with a fourth place. Along with Joey Logano, Dillon was running at the checkered flag at every single race run during the season. Like in 2017, he finished 24th in points.