When NASCAR racers are on TV behind the wheel of a car, they’re usually trying to win a race. In Austin Dillon’s upcoming appearance on “Rosewood,” however, the Richard Childress Racing driver had to crash out intentionally.
Dillon will be featured in Friday’s episode of the FOX drama “Rosewood,” and although his character has some driving scenes, he’s the bad guy, so naturally he doesn’t get away.
In a tweet linking to a press release, RCR explained Dillon used one of his precious days off to complete the filming for the episode.
Racers get lots of experience in front of the cameras through sponsorship appearances, but reading taglines as themselves is very different from regurgitating lines of dialogue as a fictional character. To help with this, Dillon reportedly spent some time talking to Dominick Lombardozzi — Captain Ira Hornstock — on set.
“Dom was really, really great,” Dillon said, via RCR. “He went over my lines with me and really made me feel at ease. He gave me a lot of pointers. He’s so good at what he does and told me to put emotion into it. The entire cast and crew was great. I can’t say enough about all of them.”
“Rosewood” announced Dillon would appear on the show in a tweet that shows him, Lombardozzi and Jaina Lee Ortiz — Detective Annalise Villa — either just before or immediately following the scene in which his character gets arrested.
Considering we recently learned NASCAR will be without its most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr., in 2018, the 27-year-old’s cameo is reassuring sign that younger drivers will pick up the slack in promoting the sport.
