Is Austin Hill Just a Superspeedway Racer?

With the NASCAR Xfinity Series taking to the high banks of Talladega Superspeedway on Saturday, April 22, all eyes fall on to one driver who has performed stunningly well at superspeedways: Austin Hill.

Hill gained his first career NASCAR Xfinity Series win at Daytona International Speedway in 2022 and has been a household name when it comes to superspeedway threats. He won last summer at Atlanta Motor Speedway and has already won at both tracks again this season.

As he enters the second third of the season, is Hill just a superspeedway ace and nothing else?

When Hill won Daytona back in February, it seemed to be that way. However, a win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, during which he passed Chandler Smith coming to the white flag, turned heads and changed people’s viewpoints.

But since that Vegas win, he hasn’t been a threat other than winning Atlanta. Excluding Atlanta, Hill finished a distant seventh at Phoenix Raceway, a dismal 37th at Circuit of the Americas, ninth at Richmond Raceway, and most recently, 17th at Martinsville Speedway.

Because of this, opinions have returned to Hill being a superspeedway racer who just got lucky at Vegas. However, looking back on Hill’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career, results show that he can win just about anywhere.

Driving for Hattori Racing Enterprises in the No. 16, Hill gained eight wins in various disciplines of tracks — he won at Daytona; 1.5-mile tracks Kansas Speedway, Homestead-Miami Speedway and Vegas; dirt track Knoxville Raceway; and road course Watkins Glen International.

So Hill has proven he can win anywhere, but he’s struggling to prove that in the Xfinity car. He was promoted to the Xfinity Series to drive the No. 21 for Richard Childress Racing in 2022 and finished a respectable sixth in the overall championship at season’s end. Hill had certainly been a contender at multiple tracks last season, as evidenced by his 11 top fives. He hasn’t had quite the same luck this season.

But it’s also no secret that RCR has been in a sort of rebuild mode since Kevin Harvick left the team way back in 2013. Its Xfinity program was arguably stronger than its Cup program, but there was still a lot left to be desired.

Hill’s signing seemed to mark the beginning of a change at RCR, as the Xfinity program began improving drastically with Hill behind the wheel. Then the big domino of 2023 came when RCR signed Kyle Busch, bringing his truck team, Kyle Busch…