Was 2020 Austin Dillon’s Best Year?
Austin Dillon is some what of a NASCAR anomaly. Over his 7 year Cup Series career he has tallied 3 wins, two of which have been Crown Jewel races(2017 Coke 600 and 2018 Daytona 500). However, it always seems like he is just a middle of the pack driver. This year it felt like we saw Austin Dillon in the mix much more than recent seasons with him strategically winning the first Texas race and making it to the round of 12 in the playoffs. Lets take a look at the breakdown of several statistics from each of his 7 seasons to find out if 2020 was indeed Austin Dillon’s best year to date.
The above graphic shows the average starting and finishing positions for each year of Dillon’s career. Only 3 times in his 7 year career has Dillon had a better finishing average than his start. When looking at the numbers for 2016 and 2020, even though he finished worse than he started. His finishing position is the lowest of his career with 15.9 in 2016 and 16.2 in 2020.
Dillon’s 2016 year had the highest total laps ran inside the top 15. While 2020 is Dillon’s second most productive year in the top 15, it does not come close to the 6,408 laps in 2016.
Dillon’s 13 top 10’s and 4 Top 5’s in 2016 once again reign supreme against any other of his seasons. 2017 being a drastic drop-off with only 4 top 10’s, Dillon was able to rally back and double his top 10’s in 2018 and has been on a steady trend back up towards his career high of 13 in 2016.
The above graphic is a good indication of speed. Dillon produced his career high of Fastest laps ran in 2020. Averaging 5.3 fastest laps on track per race.
2020 proved to be a huge year for laps led for Austin Dillon. The driver and team almost doubled their previous career high of 70 laps led in a season.
Conclusion
It is obvious that 2016 and 2020 were Dillon’s most impressive years so far in his 7 year Cup career. When it comes down to speed, Dillon’s 2020 produced a win, far more laps led, fastest laps, and the farthest he has gone into the playoffs. While 2016 provided career high top 5s & 10s, time spent running in the top 15, and the lowest average start and finish.
I would say that while 2020 seemed to be a breakout year for the 30 year old, 2016 proved to be the best statistical year for Dillon so far.
