Hill, who won the 2023 season opener at Daytona, appeared headed to a runner-up finish Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway but dramatically began closing the distance on Smith in the final 10 laps.
With one lap to go, Smith’s No. 16 Chevrolet got very tight in Turn 4 and Hill went to his inside and came away with the lead. He held Justin Allgaier off by 0.268 seconds at the checkered flag.
The win is the fourth of Hill’s career. So far this year, Hill has finished first, sixth and first.
“I saw him get really tight off (Turn) 4 and I wrapped the line really good and it was just a matter of trying to clear him and get into Turn 1,” Hill said of his winning pass. “There are things we can work on to get better but we’re looking really good for this year.
“You can never give up. No matter where you’re running, don’t quit. You saw (Smith) there, he was way out front but we had something left and we were able to bring it home and get the lead when it counted.”
Smith, who led 118 of the 200 laps, ended up fading to third, Kyle Busch was fourth and Josh Berry rounded out the top-five.
“Just the last 10 laps started to get a little snug,” Smith said. “I wasn’t getting much help with lapped traffic. All in all, I can’t be too disappointed.”
Completing the top-10 were John Hunter Nemechek, Sam Mayer, Riley Herbst, Sheldon Creed and Daniel Hemric.
Stage 3
Following the caution between Stages 2 and 3, most of the lead-lap cars elected to pit with Hill first off pit road. Jeremy Clements had to restart from the rear of the field for speeding on pit road.
On the restart on Lap 98, Hill was followed by Busch, Berry and Herbst.
Busch went to the outside of Nemechek on the restart and moved into the lead for the first time in the race.
Chandler Smith got around Busch on Lap 102 to return to the lead.
On Lap 140, several lead-lap cars hit pit road to kick off a final round of green-flag pit stops to take on new tires and fuel to make it to the end of the race.
Sammy Smith and Brandon Jones were forced to serve a pass-through penalty after speeding on pit road during their respective pit stops. Jones had to serve the penalty twice after he was caught speeding while serving the first penalty.
Once the cycle of stops was completed on Lap 146, Chandler Smith returned to the lead followed by Hill and Busch.
With 25 laps remaining, Chandler Smith had built a 2.9-second lead over Austin Hill as Allgaier ran third.
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