South Boston, VA (June 2, 2008): Austin Dillon, driver of the #3 Garage Equipment Supply Chevrolet, posted a runner-up finish in the Strutmasters.com 150 at South Boston Speedway Saturday night, and maintained his point lead in the NASCAR Camping World Series East point standings. The finish marks his second top-five and third top-10 in only three starts in the series.

“We raced our heart out all night,” said Dillon. “I have to thank Garage Equipment Supply for all the support they’ve given us this year, and congratulations to Brian Ickler. He did a great job.”

Dillon proved his prowess of the track early in the day with fast practice laps in the 16.20 range. The 18-year-old driver stepped it up in qualifying with a lap of 16.168 seconds to earn the ninth starting position. But patience was going to be key on a demanding short track like South Boston.

“We started ninth and had to come up through there. In qualifying, I think going out early hurt us a little bit there. If we could have started up front we wouldn’t have used up our stuff as much,” he said.

Dillon used the first half of the race to work his way up to third and came on strong in the second half. On a restart, Dillon dove to the bottom to challenge Derek Thorn, who retaliated with a side-by-side challenge that lasted an entire circuit. Dillon got a nose over him on the backstretch and settled into second comfortably as they came to the line.

Dillon had nothing for Ickler on the restart at lap 104, but closed the door on challenges for second from his teammate Peyton Sellers. A caution tightened the field back up and gave Dillon another shot at Ickler. On lap 134, Dillon crossed the line first to officially lead his first lap, but couldn’t hold Ickler off and was relegated back to second on the following circuit.

“Ickler just had a little bit more than us, and we just couldn’t keep it on the bottom when he could. The Garage Equipment Supply car was great. Lance and Andy put a great piece under me,” said Dillon. “He was better on the long run, and a bit more consistent.”

Dillon led again on the final restart at lap 153 when he beat Ickler to the line, but like the time before, Ickler quickly used the bottom groove to his advantage and reclaimed the top spot.

“We had a great restart and I had him beat in turn one, but I was a little too early to the line. I think we could have won the race but NASCAR rules say you can’t beat the leader to the line. I got credit for leading the lap, but I had to give him his spot back and I just ran out of time to chase him down. But all in all we had a good day, we raced hard, the car is in one piece, and ASM had a great points day.”