Image details: Goody’s Cool Orange 500 Practice served by picapp.com

Austin Dillon, grandson of Richard Childress and driver of the famed no. 3 car in the Camping World East Series, currently sits in first place in the points standings. In just his first year in the series, after four starts, Austin has already accumulated a win, 2 top-five’s, and 3 top-ten finishes. His lone victory came in the opening race at Greenville Pickens Speedway back in April, and he also finished 2nd at South Boston Speedway in May.

The 18-year old Dillon is most known for the popular notion that he will one day drive the no. 3 car for Richard Childress Racing in the Sprint Cup Series. Childress retired the number following the death of Dale Earnhardt Sr. back in 2001, but Austin’s aspiration to drive the car number that he has driven since he was a small child could very well pursuade Richard to bring the car number back out of retirement.

With nine races remaining on the schedule, Dillon currently holds a 55 point lead over second place Brian Ickler, and 57 points over third place Steve Park. The series will return to the tracks at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on June 27th.

For those of you that have had yourselves so engrossed with the notion of Austin Dillon one day making it to the Cup Series level to run the Richard Childress Racing number 3 car that was formerly run by racing great, Dale Earnhardt, you may be unaware that yet another relative of a long-time car owner at the Cup Series level has embarked on his journey to future stardome through the ARCA/Re Maxx Series.

Matt Carter, the recently turned 27 year old son of Travis Carter, gave himself a belated birthday present this past Saturday night at Toledo Speedway by winning the Hantz Group 200. Carter held off Patrick Sheltra in the closing laps of the caution filled race, and managed to escape with the win only 0.115 seconds ahead of his challenger. Matt was making only his seventh career start in the series and has now pulled himself into a tie for the series’ points lead with last week’s race winner, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., just 20 points ahead of Frank Kimmel.

Other notables in the race included David Ragan, who finished fifth; Stenhouse, who finished seventh; and Ken Schrader who raced his way to a ninth place finish. The series will take back to the track on June 7th at Pocono Raceway for the running of the Pocono 200.

This week, I’ve decided to compile a list of the top-ten future potential stars in NASCAR. The basis for this list isn’t based purely on driving skill, but also on other aspects that can contribute to their future success such as their organization, or even gender.

10. Justin Allgaier - 21 years-old, currently driving in his third full season in the ARCA/REMAXX Series. Has compiled one victory in each of the past three seasons.

9. Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. - 20 years-old, has recorded 2 wins and 4 top-five’s through his first 20 races in the USAC Series.

8. Brad Keselowski - 24 years-old, currently driving in the Nationwide Series for Bob & Kay Keselowski. Currently 7th in points with 4 top-ten finishes.

7. Steve Wallace - The twenty-year-old son of Rusty Wallace; finished 17th in the Nationwide Series points standings last year, and currently 15th in points with a top-five and two top-ten’s.

6. Marcos Ambrose - The 30-year-old Australlian native has won several accolades in lesser series, and is known as an accomplished road racer. He’s turning that into some noticeable stock car success, and through two seasons has 2 top-five’s and 8 top-ten’s. He’s currently 16th in the Nationwide points standings.

5. Brad Coleman - Brad has a future with Joe Gibbs Racing, though the timeline is still a bit sketchy as long as JGR has Joey Logano in the waiting. He made his debut in the Nationwide Series this year and is currently 17th in points with one top-ten finish through ten races.

4. Austin Dillon - Being the grandson of Cup Series teamowner, Richard Childress, is sure to have its perks, and having the fortune to know that you can one day bring Dale Earnhardt’s former number back into NASCAR one day is one of them. He already has a win this season in the Camping World East Series, and is expected to win quite a few more before long.

3. Chrissy Wallace - She earned herself a top-20 finish in her first career start in the Craftsman Truck Series in March, and has recently signed a deal with Germain Racing that will have her competing full-time in 2009. With her family name, superior backing inside the NASCAR garage, and her appeal as a standout female star, big things could be on the horizon for Chrissy Wallace.

2. Aric Almirola - He’s scheduled to run a part-time schedule this year inside the no. 8 car for DEI that includes 12 races, the first of which came earlier in 2008 with a top-five run at Bristol. He’s currently slated to run full-time for the organization when Mark Martin goes into full retirement, which could be as early as next year.

1. Joey Logano - His future lies with Joe Gibbs Racing, producer of three Cup Series championships, and could have a pretty sweet deal lined up for himself depending on what Tony Stewart decides to do at the end of his contract in 2009. He recently won his first-ever start in the ARCA series a little over a week ago in Rockingham, and will make his first Nationwide start at the end of this month when he turns 18 years old.

Peyton Sellers won the season-opening Camping World East Series event this past weekend at Greenville-Pickens Speedway in Easley, SC for Andy Santerre Motorsports. Following the race, however, NASCAR officials found that the 16-year-old’s car was in possession of an illegal shock, and NASCAR in turn stripped him of his victory. This is the first time in recent memory that I believe NASCAR has stripped a driver in any series of a win for any rules infraction, but the team definitely feels like they’re being made an example of.

Santerre said to reporters, “Needless to say we are shocked and disappointed. We are being made an example … We admit there was a rules infraction, but it was a shock to us with as much as it was unintentional and unknown prior to post-race inspection.”

The team is obviously disappointed that they have been penalized with the loss of their race win on top of whatever other penalties NASCAR decides to hand to them, but to make matters worse, they deemed the car with a  30th place finish. The win was then awarded to Sellers’ teammate and original second-place finisher, Austin Dillon – grandson to Sprint Cup Series car owner, Richard Childress.

In Other News:
- Due to the Nationwide Series’ race in Talladega and the Craftsman Truck Series race in Kansas both being held on Saturday, Kyle Busch has conceded running the truck race this weekend. The series’ points leader will be replaced in the no. 51 Billy Ballew Motorsports truck by Shane Sieg. Shane has made 29 career starts in the truck series and has posted two top-ten finishes. One of those top-ten’s actually came behind the wheel of a Billy Ballew Motorsports truck last year at Loudon.

- Haas CNC Racing’s recent release of Jeremy Mayfield has left them scrambling for drivers week-to-week to fill the seat behind the wheel of their no. 70 Chevy Impala. The first week after firing Mayfield, they put Johnny Sauter in the car at Phoenix en route to a 37th place finish, and this weekend they’ll be hoping for better results with Ken Schrader at the helm. The team has recently locked on another driver for at least two of the season’s events with Max Papis scheduled to drive the car at both of the road course races in Watkins Glen and Infineon.

*Credit photo to lowesmotorspeedway.com

A few months ago, I told you all to keep your eyes out for the possible re-emergence of the no. 3 car in NASCAR, and it seems as though that day may be sooner than expected. As any racing fan already knows, the no. 3 car was retired from Richard Childress Racing following the untimely death of Dale Earnhardt Sr. back in 2001, and that car number has resurfaced on only a handful of occasions. Dale Earnhardt Jr. ran the number for a few races in the [then] Busch Series back in 2002 and 2003, and the Intimidator’s old car has made a few cameo appearances at select events. But, the notion that the number could ever return on a full-time basis has always seemed impossible, maybe even tragic, to fans of our sport.

Austin Dillon – grandson to Richard Childress himself – has been running the no. 3 on the side of his car ever since he first started racing. In recent years he’s been racing late-model dirt cars, and on April 19th of this year, the 17-year-old will debut in the Camping World East Series. With his grandfather’s approval, Austin will continue to race with the number “3” painted on the side of his car, and the black car will be sponsored by Garage Equipment Supply. The car itself is not owned by Childress, but rather by Andy Santerre.

We’ll continue to keep tabs on Austin Dillon as he climbs his way through the amateur series with hopes of one day making it to one of NASCAR’s top-three series. When that day comes, it should be interesting to see who owns the car that he drives, and what the number is painted on the side of that car. Don’t be too surprised if you’re looking at another RCR-owned number 3.