Austin Hill stretches fuel, steals Atlanta Xfinity win

Hill, who won his third straight season opener at Daytona last weekend, had not led a single lap Saturday entering overtime.

Although Hill’s Richard Childress Racing’s teammate, Jesse Love, had dominated the race and led on the restart, he quickly fell to the wayside when his No. 2 Chevrolet ran out of fuel.

That allowed Hill to inherit the lead and he managed to hold off Chandler Smith – who pit under the last caution for fuel – by 0.106 seconds to claim the win, the eighth of his career.

The final stage remained caution-free until cars began running out of fuel with two of the scheduled 163 laps to go. Both Love and Hill had been told by their respective teams they were good to make it to the finish.

However, with Love in the lead most of the time, he wasn’t able to save quite as much as Hill, which left Hill in a better position in overtime.

“I just got to thank my guys, everyone on this No. 21 Chevrolet. I was really down and out and thinking (Love) was going to win,” Hill said. “I thought if I can’t win then hopefully my teammate can win.

“I have to congratulate my teammate. He ran an awesome race. To be a rookie and led that many laps (157), he should be sitting right here in Victory Lane.”

Three-time Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen ended up third in his second series start, Sheldon Creed was fourth and Parker Reztlaff rounded out the top five.

Stage 1

Love led all 40 laps on his way to a dominating Stage 1 win over Riley Herbst. Sam Mayer was third, Ryan Truex fourth and Parker Kligerman rounded out the top five.

Stage 2

Love again dominated, easily holding off Justin Allgaier by 0.134 seconds to win Stage 2, leading all but one green flag lap. Herbst was third, Truex fourth and Sammy Smith rounded out the top five.

Stage 3

During the break between Stages 2 and 3, the lead-lap cars all pit with A.J. Allmendinger first off pit road. Jeremy Clements was too fast on pit road and had to restart from the rear of the field.

Allmendinger led the way on the restart with 76 laps remaining.

Allmendinger and Love then spent several laps racing side-by-side for the lead before Love finally cleared him to reclaim the lead on lap 94.

With 50 laps remaining, Love remained out front of Allmendinger followed by Herbst, Truex and Kligerman.

A few laps later, Herbst got around Allmendinger for second, which left Allmendinger briefly in the bottom lane and he fell back in the field to 12th.

With less…