Austin Dillon wants to hug, talk to Daytona 500-winning car

Michelle R. Martinelli | For The Win

First-time Daytona 500 winner Austin Dillon didn't spend too much time with his No. 3 Chevrolet after he climbed out of it in Victory Lane on Sunday night.

He went off to celebrate with his team, and the car stayed at Daytona International Speedway and is on display at the museum, the Daytona 500 Experience, for one year before the team can get it back. So when Dillon did an interview with NASCAR while sitting next to the car, it was clear he wanted a little more time with it.

"Right now, everything is still sinking in. It's pretty cool to see this car behind me. I really wanna hug it, talk to the car because I feel like I didn't do crazy things (Sunday), it just kind of came to us. And our plan was to keep the car clean and have the opportunity at the end, and if you look at it, there's not really a whole lot of scratches on it."

Dillon pointed out the only real damage to it was after he slide though the grass and did a burnout as part of a tribute to Dale Earnhardt Sr., who won the Daytona 500 in 1998 in the same car for Richard Childress Racing.

Dillon is Childress' grandson, and the driver explained how the burnout tribute was planned on the off-chance the No. 3 car won. It was Childress' idea for him to celebrate while rolling through the grass, and Dillon said some people even told him the burnout looked like a 3.

Also similar to Dale Sr.'s win 20 years ago, Dillon was given a lucky penny from a fan before the race. Dillon raced with the penny in the car, and clearly it's lucky. So Sunday after the race, he was asked about what'll happen to that penny.

He said:

"I think that penny deserves to stay with its owner, the car, so it's going to stick right there. It's glued in on the left side of the dash, and you guys can go check it out. I'd like to find that kid, though. Maybe I can - if somebody knows me, if you could get him to the track tomorrow, that would be really cool."

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