MEMPHIS, Tenn. ññ Austin Dillon took advantage of a great pit road call early on in the Kroger On Track for the Cure 250 and then drove the No. 21 Hardee's/Childress Institute Chevrolet to a fourth-place finish in just the second NASCAR Nationwide Series start of his young career.

The top-five finish came less than two months after his series debut at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway, where he started 31st and finished 26th.

Dillon's fast lap during Saturday morning's qualifying session took 23.390 seconds (115.434 mph) on the .75-mile tri-oval. It was good enough to earn the 18th position on the starting grid for that afternoon's race and was the quickest of the three Richard Childress Racing cars entered in the event.

The 18-year-old grandson of Richard Childress dropped just a few positions early on in the 250-lap race. When the second caution flag of the day slowed the field on lap 27, crew chief Shane Wilson decided to bring Dillon down pit road for a major chassis adjustment to the No. 21 Hardee's/Childress Institute Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS. The call proved to be a good one on two fronts – the handling of the car improved and the very few cars that came down pit road at that time ended up being the majority of the six cars that finished the race on the lead lap.

Dillon was 26th when racing resumed on lap 35. With the car's handling to his liking, he made a steady move toward the front and was 17th on lap 100 and gained another spot over the next five laps. It was about that time that the majority of the field, those who didn't pit earlier, began making green-flag stops. That allowed Dillon to move into the sixth position by lap 120 and put at least one lap on most of the field.

The No. 21 Chevy ended up going a lap down but the team earned the "Lucky Dog" shortly thereafter and then stayed on the lead lap for the balance of the race. Dillon never ran anywhere lower than sixth and was able to make his way to fourth place by the time the checkered flag flew on lap 253 after a green-white-checkered flag finish.

Edwards earned his fifth Nationwide Series victory of 2008. The rest of the top-five finishers were David Reutimann, Kenny Wallace, Dillon, and Joey Logano. Dillon's RCR teammates Clint Bowyer and Scott Wimmer finished 16th and 22nd, respectively.

Stephen Leicht will climb behind the wheel of RCR's No. 21 Prilosec OTC Chevrolet team when it heads to Texas for the 33rd of 35 races on the 2008 NASCAR Nationwide Series schedule. Coverage of the Nov. 1 O'Reilly Challenge at Texas Motor Speedway is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on ESPN2. The Performance Racing Network and Sirius Satellite will also carry the race live. Qualifying at the suburban Forth Worth facility will be televised live Fri., Oct. 31, on SPEED beginning at 6:30 p.m. EDT. PRN and Sirius Satellite Radio will broadcast qualifying updates live.

AUSTIN DILLON QUOTE:

For more information, contact:

David Hart
Director of Communications
Richard Childress Racing
hart@rcrracing.com
336.731.3334 ext. 3222 Office