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Austin Dillon got his first-ever big-time victory when he won the Lucas Oil 200 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Iowa on Sunday.

Dillon dominated the race, leading all but about 17 laps in his Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet Silverado owned by his grandfather.

“I’m so proud of him,” Childress said. “Dale Earnhardt would be proud of him (for winning in an RCR truck with the No. 3 on the side)”.

The rookie polesitter was cruising to a multiple-second victory when a caution came out with three laps to go. That set up a green-white-checkered restart. On the restart, Dillon jumped out in front of Johnny Sauter and pulled away to the victory.

“This truck was awesome,” Dillon said. “This is the first one of many, hopefully.”

He led up to a caution at about the half way point but was beat out of the pits by Mike Skinner. But on lap 121, Dillon recaptured the lead. He held that until he was passed by Sauter on a restart with 50 laps to go. Three laps later, Dillon had the lead back and this time for good.

Sauter, who won the Camping World race at Kansas Speedway in May, finished second. He said some iffy moves by Dillon on the final restart may have cost him the victory.

Matt Crafton was third.

The top four point leaders – Todd Bodine, Aric Almirola, Timothy Peters and Ron Hornaday – all had maor problems. Al but Peters were involved in wrecks. Peters appeared to have engine problems.

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