SPEEDWAY, Ind. – Quick, what have been Austin Hill‘s best tracks in his rookie NASCAR Xfinity Series season?
First there’s the superspeedways, where the Richard Childress Racing driver has won twice (Daytona, Atlanta 2), finished second (Atlanta 1) and crashed out (Talladega).
After the pack racing tracks, the 28-year-old Hill’s most consistent form of racing has been on …*drum roll* … road courses.
Entering Saturday’s (July 30) race on the Indianapolis Road Course, Hill has finished in the top five in all three road course events this season.
He was second at Circuit of the Americas in March and followed that up by placing third in the rain at Portland and then coming home fourth at Road America.
Saturday, Hill will start ninth after a disappointing qualifying run.
He will try to earn his third career NASCAR Xfinity Series win, but his second career NASCAR win on a road course. In case you’ve forgotten, Hill claimed the 2021 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Watkins Glen International.
If “Austin Hill, Road Course Ace” snuck up on you (it did for me), Hill doesn’t seem surprised by it.
“I’m very excited about today, I love road course racing,” Hill told Frontstretch Friday prior to qualifying. “We feel like the road courses kind of owe us a little bit just because we have been so good on the road courses and have shown speed. We just get down to the end of the race and we’re just missing that little bit to come home with the win.”
Hill, who has 155 NASCAR starts across Truck and Xfinity, said his love of road courses goes all the way back to his days racing Bandoleros and Legends cars.
The racing results in a driver “really abusing the car” to get the job done.
“Anytime we ran road course races I just love … all the shifting that you’re doing, you’re turning left and right. You’re hopping curbs,” Hill said. “You’re driving the heck out of these race cars to go fast. And that’s what I like about that. I feel like it kind of puts it in the driver’s hands.”
When practice concluded Friday, it wasn’t a surprise that AJ Allmendinger topped the speed chart – and eventually won the pole.
But behind the road-course veteran in second was Hill. In his No. 21 Chevrolet, Hill posted a fast practice lap of 95.524 mph.
Allmendinger, who won the inaugural Cup race on the Indianapolis Road Course last year, has noted Hill’s success this year.
“I think he’s just ultimate smooth,”…
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