When the NASCAR Xfinity Series visits a superspeedway like Atlanta Motor Speedway, picking Richard Childress Racing to win is as safe a bet as there is.
Austin Hill was king of the high banks again on Sept. 7 (Saturday), claiming a win in the Focused Health 250, the seventh of his career on drafting tracks.
After several contenders were collected in a crash with just under 20 to go, Hill battled Chandler Smith to the finish with an unlikely assist. Corey Heim in a Sam Hunt Racing Toyota gave a shove late to Hill rather than his fellow Toyota teammate Smith, allowing Hill to control over the final two laps.
Parker Kligerman finished runner-up while AJ Allmendinger took third. Smith rallied to fourth and Heim, after a brush with the outside wall on the final lap, faded to fifth.
The Winners
Kligerman has quietly become a bit of a superspeedway whisperer.
The No. 48 Chevy avoided the late accident and wound up at the front with a chance to win. A second-place finish, his best run of the year, would have to suffice.
Kligerman now has a comfortable lead over the cutline with just two races remaining in the regular season, including a road course next week that Kligerman has been strong at.
Speaking of road courses, Allmendinger somehow entered the day with no stage wins to his name. The former Atlanta winner not only picked up a stage win and finished third. While it’s been a quiet year in his return to the Xfinity Series, Allmendinger is now locked into the playoffs as the fifth-place driver in the standings.
An extra nod goes to Josh Williams, who finished eighth. His choice to start on the bottom of the front row on the final restart ultimately didn’t pay off how he needed it to, but Williams did manage his fourth top-10 of the season.
Smith might not have been too happy with him afterwards, but Heim had a legitimate chance to get his first career Xfinity win and the first win in Sam Hunt Racing history. Heim’s peek on the outside of Hill going into turn 2 ultimately cost him, but the Truck Series regular can hold his head high with a fifth-place run.
Brandon Jones was sitting third when the red flag was thrown late. It seemed to have slipped away with a fuel intake issue upon refiring. Jones’ opportunity to punch his ticket to the playoffs may have slipped away but he somehow managed to salvage a ninth-place finish.
After a tumultuous few weeks for AM Racing, Lawless Alan was near the front…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at …