"It was too late to make up much ground" - Austin Dillon claims to have struggled with 'a very stiff front end' and handling issues at Dover Motor Speedway

The 2013 Xfinity Series Champion, Austin Dillon, had a bad day in the office at the 400-mile oval track, Dover International Speedway. The 32-year-old finished second at Talladega and was hoping to take a step closer to victory at Dover.

However, things didn’t turn out as expected as he recorded a 23rd place finish and watched Chase Elliott get the position he was craving. According to Dillon, the race could have been better if he was not struggling with handling issues.

According to him, his No. 3 car came into its normal shape with only 60 laps remaining to complete the race. It was too late to bounce back and get to the winning stage.

Speaking to the media, Austin directed his racing frustrations to a stiff front end, saying:

"We struggled with a very stiff front end and a tight handling condition no matter what chassis adjustments we made. This No. 3 team never gave up, though.

We worked hard to make adjustments and it finally started to handle a little bit better with about 60 laps remaining in the race. By then, we were running pretty decent lap times but it was too late to make up much ground. It’s not what we wanted this weekend, but we’ll regroup and head to Darlington Raceway."

The RCR driver lined up for Sunday's race in pole position, 24 ahead of his teammate, Tyler Reddick. However, the 400-lap race was then postponed after 78 laps due to ceaseless rain that interrupted the race.

Despite the postponement of the race, Austin Dillon was unable to fix his issues. He was in the lineup on Monday at noon with the same adjustment problems.

Austin Dillon is yet to pocket a win in the 2022 season but has several top-five finishes

Before NASCAR headed to Delaware, Austin Dillon was among the drivers who made a fashionable finish at Talladega, where he finished as a runner-up.

The RCR driver sat in the top ten during the final lap at Talladega and got lucky after Larson miscalculated his final move and opened doors for him and Ross Chastain.

The runner-up finish served as a recovery after he posted a disheartening finish at Martinsville. The No. 3 driver has driven his Camaro ZL1 to the runner-up position twice, but he hasn’t been lucky enough to pocket any checkered flags yet.

Dillon has visited the top ten finishes five times out of 11 races, which is pretty good for him, and a win this weekend will add a lot to his record. His focus has fully shifted to next week’s race in Darlington, where he hopes to bag his first win since 2020.