Paul Swan Reveals How He Is Behind The Wheel & If Austin Dillon Is A Backseat Driver

“Austin Dillon's Life In The Fast Lane” offers a look at the ins and outs of Richard Childress Racing pit crew member Paul Swan’s life supporting his best friend, professional NASCAR driver Austin Dillon. However, some may be wondering how well he’d do if their roles were reversed. 

Anyone who has tuned into the USA Network series will get an inside look at how seriously Paul takes conditioning and training to be a top-tier tire carrier. However, what they don’t get to see is how he would do driving. And just as with everything else he does, Swan believes he’s among the best there is behind the wheel. 

“Oh, buddy. I'm the best driver you're ever going to see, OK?” he told USA Insider in a recent interview. “Everybody wants to drive with me.” 

Unfortunately for him, his wife, Mariel Swan, was on hand to reveal he may have been embellishing people’s opinions of his driving skills.  

“Lies. It's lies!” she said. 

Once busted by his wife, Paul noted he considers himself to be “awesome” as a driver, but admitted others find his “aggressive” style a bit hard to deal with — which is saying something considering most of their friends are involved in motorsports in some capacity. 

“No, I mean, nobody wants to drive with me,” Paul admitted. “They all think I'm the worst driver. What's funny is, I'm the one who drives our team van every weekend at the track, but they all complain about my driving, yet I'm the one doing the driving!"

He added: “I'm not a bad driver, I'm an aggressive driver.”

Paul went on to insist that he’s the person one would want to get out of “any situation” that would occur on the road, but maybe not on the track. For that, he relies on the professional prowess of Dillon. That being said, Dillon’s driving insight can show up even when they’re not on the raceway.

“Austin, he is the worst back seat driver you will ever deal with,” Paul said. “I can't drive with him. Like, I always have him drive wherever we go because I just … I can't deal with it."

It makes sense that the Daytona 500 winner, two-time rookie of the year winner, as well as the Truck and Xfinity Series winner would have a few comments to make when letting someone else take the wheel. Fortunately, it seems Paul is fine to just let Austin drive when they have to — but if they ever get a flat, he’d be there to fix it in seconds. 

“Austin Dillon’s Life In The Fast Lane” airs Thursdays at 9:30/8:30c on USA Network. You can catch more NASCAR content on Peacock now.