DUQUOIN, Ill. — Dillon Welch has spent a lot of time in front of a television camera this season, but Saturday night he reminded fans at the Southern Illinois Center that he can still wheel a race car with the best of them.
Welch was one of 70 drivers who attempted to make the fourth annual Junior Knepper 55 at the sixth-mile indoor dirt track, making the feature and starting 11thin the main event and running as high as ninth before a lap-26 crash ended his night.
Welch worked as a pit reporter for both FOX Sports and NBC Sports this season, covering the action at selected ARCA Racing Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series events.
However, Welch was all smiles at the chance to get back behind the wheel.
“Coming and getting to run anytime during the winter is awesome, but especially at DuQuoin. This place is a lot of fun and we had a great run here in 2017,” Welch told SPEED SPORT. “That helped my confidence level coming in, since I don’t get to race a lot anymore. I was a little apprehensive at the start before we got things going, but I’m always appreciative of the opportunity that I get each year to come back and race with Scott Ronk, Parker Price-Miller and this team they’ve put together.”
Prior to his time on television, Welch was the public-address announcer for the United States Auto Club and also spent time as a turn announcer for the Motor Racing Network.
Welch noted he has found several parallels between racing and broadcasting, with both sides of the sport being high-energy, fast-paced environments.
“To a certain extent, the broadcasting thing is an intense profession, but it’s a different kind of intensity,” Welch explained. “There’s still pressure and still nerves, but the last few years, I’ve tried to take a more fun approach to racing … as much as you can, anyways.
“I’m a competitive person whenever I’m in this car and I want to run as well as I can. If I don’t feel like I live up to my own expectations I’m disappointed, but it’s nice to be able to come to the race track and not necessarily have the expectation of going out and winning … or even running in the top five, for that matter,” he continued. “It’s really more of my own expectations. I’ve done this part-time deal for a few years now and I feel like I know what’s reasonable to expect of myself. It’s been fun learning that side.”
One of Welch’s professional highlights this season was working with his father — NASCAR Camping World Truck Series play-by-play announcer Vince Welch — during several ARCA broadcasts on FOX Sports 1.
The father-son duo’s first time working a television broadcast together was at Gateway Motorsports Park in June.
“Working with my dad earlier this year was awesome,” Welch smiled. “That’s something that he and I actually laughed about. When I was growing up in racing, we always dreamed of him interviewing me in victory lane somewhere, but as I got older and my racing curtailed somewhat, I think the dream shifted toward just that — us working the same broadcast somewhere at some point.
“To get to do that at this stage of my career is extremely humbling and I know it meant a lot to him, too. He’s been my biggest mentor and supporter since day one and for us to share that was really special.”
Welch’s annual dirt-track odyssey began in September at the BC39 at The Dirt Track at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where he made the feature but retired from the event on lap 12.
After similar luck bit him in DuQuoin, Welch is hoping he can conclude his offseason racing adventures with a stress-free run at the Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals in Tulsa, Okla., Jan. 14-19.
The weeklong event will be Welch’s final race of the winter in the Ronk No. 99p and he believes the team can go out and make the field for the feature just as they have in their first two events together this season.
“I honestly feel like we have a shot to make the A main at the Chili Bowl every year because the cars and the people we have working on them haven’t changed,” said Welch. “My goal when I go there is always to be dressed for opening ceremonies (on Saturday night) — and that’s C mains. I feel like if we get there, then it has been a good week.
“I feel like we deserve to be in the A main and that our car is fast enough to be there, but sometimes it just comes down to a little error on the driver’s part. Hopefully we can get the bugs and kinks worked out so that all our focus can go toward a week in Tulsa next month.”
Regardless of the results, however, Welch is simply happy he has the opportunity to continue pursuing both of his passions — racing and broadcasting — in the industry he loves.
“It has been a fun year. I got to run outdoors at the BC39 … and I always like coming indoors and having a few races under my belt,” Welch noted. “DuQuoin is always a really tricky place, but it’s nice to have laps before the Chili Bowl with how important that week of racing is every year.
“I’m thankful that I’m in a position to be able to go and make a living at the race track in front of a camera, but that I also still get to come out and wheel a few times as well.”
