ET spoke to Austin and his wife about their lives on and off the racetrack.
Austin Dillon and his wife, Whitney, are getting ready to show the world another side to NASCAR. ET spoke to the couple at their home in North Carolina, about their new reality TV show, Life in the Fast Lane, and why they decided to let the cameras into their lives.
"I think mostly because we wanted to show our friendship, our family, and just a little bit of everything about NASCAR and racing and what it entails during a regular week," Austin said of he and his wife's decision to step inside the world of reality TV.
After filming for eight weeks and letting cameras document everything, from Austin's time in the pit to their daily lives at home, the race car driver said he's happy with how it all turned out.
"We had a really good producer," Austin shared. "Our whole team was fun to work with, and I think now that the show is out and we really like the product from Life in the Fast Lane, that it's turned out really well."
He even has his NASCAR buddies tuning into the USA Network series, though they had their questions at first.
"I think they were just kinda asking questions about, 'How did it go? How much time was it? Did you like it? Did you not like?' he explained. "[But] now that they're watching the show, they like the show, and showing different, fun sides of what we do."
"The cool thing about Life in the Fast Lane, is years from now, we'll be able to look back and have our own home video," Austin added.
Austin grew up on the track, with his grandfather Richard Childress earning titles on the track and off, as a team owner, and his brother, Ty Dillon, who also competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series. But NASCAR wasn't always what the 32-year-old race car driver thought he'd be doing.
"I played other sports growing up. I played basketball, baseball, I played in the Little League World Series growing up until the time I stopped growing," Austin revealed. "I figured I'd get in the race car and be the same size as everyone else, that's kinda when I was like, 'Alright, it's time to get racing.'
"My brother actually was the first one to mention trying to go drag race cars," he added. "So, we went to a test together for the first time and fell in love."
While racing runs in their blood, it was actually Austin's mom who encouraged him to stay off the track at first.
"His mom always says that she did not want them to race, and so she pushed them into every sport that they could do," Whitney said of Austin's mom encouraging him and his brother to pick up other sports. "And so, it's funny, because they ended up racing."
As far as why she didn't want them to race, Whitney said, mainly, because it's a fairly dangerous sport.
"I think just because the sport is so dangerous, and it's so up and down," she said of her mother-in-law's reasoning. "And the emotions are really -- you’re either high or you're low, and so it's a tough life. It's a fun life, but it's a tough business to be in."
"That, and she’s grown up at the racetrack, been at a racetrack her whole life, so, just another racetrack for her," Austin added.
The highs and lows are hard for Whitney too, who said the couple leans on their faith in those trying times.
"The hardest part is that you're either really high or you're really low, you're either winning or you're losing," the former Tennessee Titans cheerleaders shared. "There's only one winner every week, so, that's the hardest part. We are really big in our faith, and we always bring it back to just our faith in God, and we keep our faith in him, and just let everything happen."
While the sport has its scary moments, Whitney told ET that the best part of being a NASCAR wife has to be the travel and adventures they get to go on along the way.
"So, the best part, is definitely that we get to travel to new cities every weekend," she gushed. "It's a lot of fun. Everything about this sport is fun, and it's new, and it's an adventure."
Get to know the Dillons more on their reality show, Life in the Fast Line, airing Thursday nights at 9:00 p.m. on USA Network.
RELATED CONTENT
