12 Questions with Austin Dillon

Jeff Gluck | USA TODAY Sports

Our series of weekly NASCAR driver interviews continues with Austin Dillon, currently in his second full Sprint Cup Series season for Richard Childress Racing.

Q: If NASCAR allowed you to listen to music while you were racing, would you want to?

A: I’m very, very into music, so I’d probably lose a little bit of my focus or drive to whatever is playing. If you could match the music to what I needed to do at that time — like if you had a really solid DJ — then yeah.

Q: Where did your first paycheck come from?

A: I was the assistant groundskeeper at the (Richard Childress Racing) shop. I helped weed-eat. I got a check from RCR I think for like $400, although it might have just been cash from my dad.

So they just had you taking care of the grass?

There’s a shop at the very back that’s on a hill, and it was full of monkey grass. They sent me on that hill for like two days and cleaned the whole thing out. And still to this day, no one has ever weed-eated it again. I don’t know why I got sent back there since no one ever did it again.

Q: Who is an autograph you got as a kid that seemed to be a big deal to you at the time?

A: You know what was really cool? We walked into Daytona one time and Evander Holyfield was there in a big tall hat. I got his autograph there.

And Hank Aaron. I got Hank Aaron’s autograph at a Braves game, and he didn’t sign autographs back then. I was probably 7 or 8, and he kind of pointed to me and my little brother (Ty) walked up, and he signed two autographs for us. I still have a baseball signed by Hank Aaron.

Q: Where’s a place you’ve never been that you’d like to go visit?

A: I’d like to go to Ireland one day. I think that’d be cool. I’m part Irish.

Q: If a genie promised you a championship in exchange for never being able to do your favorite hobby again, would you accept that offer?

A: Right now, my favorite hobby is fantasy football and it’s disappointing me really bad, so I’d take the trade for sure.

Q: What’s your preferred method of dealing with an angry driver after a race?

A: If somebody is pissed at me and they confront me, I’ll talk to them. I’ll tell them my opinion. I’m pretty honest, and I’ll tell them how I feel about it. I’ll say straight up if I screwed up; if not, I’ll tell them the situation I was in. If they don’t agree, they can just screw off.

The last one was Erik Jones during a Truck race, and John Wes Townley got into my left rear. I just told him how it was and handled it that way.

Q: Do you ever get mistaken for another driver or celebrity?

A: I get mistaken for my brother all the time. I swear it’s just because some NASCAR fans can’t pronounce two syllables or something (laughs). His is a shorter name, I guess.

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Q: If you had a time machine and you could travel to any year and race, where would you go?

A: I’d want to go to a year with bias ply tires. Or there was a year for RCR when (Jeff) Burton and (Clint) Bowyer and (Kevin) Harvick all won races, and they were really solid.. I’d want to go back to that.

Q: Would you rather have the ability to fly or be invisible?

A: I think fly. Just so I could get places easier. I could be where I wanted to be in a short period of time. Plus, flying would be fun.

Q: I’ve been asking each person to give me a question for the next interview. The last interview was with Kevin Harvick, and he wanted to know: Taylor Swift or Miley Cyrus?

A: (Laughs) Oh man. I’ll go T-Swift, because Miley has gone off the deep end. T-Swift is pretty cool; I met her. She’s like six feet (tall), and I like tall.

What was she like when you met her (before a concert in Charlotte on behalf of Xfinity)? Was she down to earth, or did she have that celebrity aura around her?

She definitely had a different aura. I’m not at a loss for words very often, and it was definitely a celebrity kind of moment. She was just that much better, you know? It was pretty cool.

I can’t imagine you at a loss for words.

I spoke, but the response time was really off, you know? Like I started the conversation because I thought about what I wanted to say. That part was easy getting out. But when she responded, it was like…yeah. That was all I could get out.

Q: And do you have a question I can ask the next driver?

A: If you met a girl for the first time and you have the option to text her or call her, what are you going to do? And if you text her, what’s the text? And if you call her, what are you going to open the conversation with?

Q: Finally, how did this interview go on a scale of 1-10?

A: I thought it was a good interview. All new questions. So I’d give it a 9 or a 10.

Follow Gluck on Twitter @jeff_gluck