By Sarah Handy, Staff Writer
BRISTOL, Tenn. — Driving for Young’s Motorsports in the No. 2 Chevrolet, NASCAR driver Tyler Dippel will seek his third consecutive Top-10 finish when he rolls off the grid at Bristol Motor Speedway Thursday night.
Dippel is coming off consecutive back-to-back Top-10 finishes for the first time in his career in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series – an eighth at Eldora Speedway and a third last week at Michigan International Speedway in the Corrigan Oil 200 from the Irish Hills of Michigan.
“Obviously, coming off a couple of straight Top-10 finishes, you know everyone is pretty happy in the shop. It feels good,” Dippel told Kickin’ the Tires. “It gives you confidence too as a driver to race a little bit harder every week. So, it feels good knowing the trucks are there and they are capable of good finishes. So, it’s for sure a confidence booster going into next week.”
The second-year driver qualified his No. 02 Lobas Productions/Jersey Filmmaker Chevrolet to a 17th place starting spot for the 200-mile event with a lap of 181.832 mph.
Dippel finished out Stage 1 at Michigan in the 12th position, and Stage 2 in the 19th position. During overtime, Dippel’s Chevrolet was lined up on the outside and looked poised to possibly steal a win on Saturday afternoon.
However, the 19-year old was unable to run down eventual race winner Austin Hill or second-place Sheldon Creed, crossing the finish line to a third-place result.
Dippel’s third-place finish is his best career finish thus far, as well as the best finish for Young’s Motorsports.
Career-best finish for Tyler Dippel, and the best finish of @youngsmtrsports to date. pic.twitter.com/G3i4WjofVu
— Young's Motorsports (@youngsmtrsports) August 10, 2019
Team owner, Tyler Young was thrilled with Dippel’s finish, taking to his Twitter account post-race.
What a day!!!!! I’m pumped I got the best guys in the garage they work their ass off every week!!!!!! P3 ran up front all day great driving by my man Tyler Dippel 🍻🍻🍻🍻
— Tyler Young (@TylerYoung02) August 10, 2019
While Dippel was unable to break through with a surprise win that would’ve landed him in the NGOTS eight driver playoff lineup, he will still seek to crash the party and earn his first career victory in one of the seven remaining races in the 2019 season.
Bristol could be a place where Dippel finds victory lane on Thursday evening in the UNOH 200.
Dippel has experience at Bristol with runs in the K&N Pro Series East and believes that will help him continue his Top-10 streak.
“It just helps that you’ve been to a track before,” he said. “We have to get our stuff a lot better right now to win but, you know, it helps having come here.”
Last season, in the K&N Series, he finished sixth after starting second at the famed track. It’s a track where Dippel has made lots of laps, further providing the young driver some valuable experience to fall back on having made a total of three starts at the track previously.
Dippel currently sits 13th in the driver standings after falling two positions from 11th after leaving Michigan due to missing out on critical stage points.