Austin Hill Continues Superspeedway Prowess at Daytona

New year, same result for Richard Childress Racing driver Austin Hill.

After rain caused the NASCAR Xfinity Series’ United Rentals 300 to run on Monday (Feb. 19) night, Hill found himself in victory lane at Daytona International Speedway once again after a late restart with three laps to go.

Jordan Anderson and Chandler Smith restarted out front with three laps left in the race. Drivers jockeyed for the top spot, as Smith, Anderson and Hill all dueled for the lead in the final few laps.

Hill was able to get to the lead over Anderson with just over two laps to go and held strong over other cars’ surges. With a push from Brandon Jones, Sheldon Creed made his way up to second place behind his former teammate.

Then, as Ryan Sieg got turned around in the pack on the backstretch, Hill was much too far out front for Creed to try to battle. The race finished under green, and Hill started off the year with a win at Daytona for the third straight year.

Creed was second, followed by Parker Retzlaff in third, Anderson in fourth and Chandler Smith rounding out the top five.

Winners

Anyone who says superspeedway racing isn’t a skill has never met Austin Hill. After pushing Richard Childress Racing teammate Jesse Love to the lead for much of stage one, he finished the opening stage in second. Then he slid through his pit stall and restarted stage two in the middle of the pack, where he got hit and went for a slide on the backstretch shortly after the restart.

Hill’s team repaired the right front enough for him to find his way back to the front and take the stage two win.

A long green-flag run came after lap 67 and stretched through to lap 97 when the caution flew. While under yellow-flag conditions, Hill had to pit for a flat tire with about 20 laps to go. Yet somehow the No. 21 avoided the rest of the carnage to take his third-straight win in the season-opening event at Daytona and seventh in his Xfinity career.

Hill’s former RCR teammate Creed also had a good run with his third straight second-place finish dating back to Martinsville Speedway last year. The California native has seemingly become the new Daniel Hemric of the Xfinity Series, as Monday night’s result was his eighth-career runner-up. Could Creed break through for the championship like Hemric did in 2021?

And shoutout to Jordan Anderson Racing teammates Retzlaff and Anderson, who took positions three and four at Daytona. Retzlaff had one of his best…