LAS VEGAS, Nev.: For pre-season championship title contender Austin Hill, the first two races of the 2021 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season certainly felt along the lines of Friday night’s entitlement partner at Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway, Bucked Up.
Luckily for Hill and his Hattori Racing Enterprises team, they were able to fend off most of their hunters and avoided getting Bucked Up for a third time with a podium finish in the Bucked Up 200.
Hill unanimously was one of the pre-race favorites for the third Truck Series race of the season, but with a horrendous start to the season, the six-time Truck Series winner would have to climb from his 31st place starting position first.
A well-balanced No. 16 Ibaraki Toyopet Toyota Tundra allowed Hill to steadily climb through the field and despite racing in dirty air, Hill took 18th at the end of Stage 1.
With the help of strong pit work by the HRE team, Hill restarted Stage 2 in the top-10 and continued his climb towards the front with a sixth-place finish at the end of the stage.
Maneuvering himself inside the top-five to start Stage 3, the Winston, Ga. native took one position at a time and when second-place runner Kyle Busch had a flat early in Stage 3, Hill became the closest challenger for John Hunter Nemechek – who had controlled much of Friday night’s race.
Even though a series of caution shuffled the leaderboard and restarts created chaotic racing, Hill was able to overcome being shoved in the middle of the lead pack to fight back to second by Lap 106.
An array of yellow flags in the final 15 laps of the race tightened the field twice.
With Kyle Busch back on the lead lap and in contention, the two Kyle Busch Motorsports worked together to overpower the one-man band of Hill on the final restart of the night. Despite their efforts, Hill didn’t go down without a fight.
A six-lap shootout kept Hill in position to pounce if the opportunity presented, but without the benefit of more laps, Hill settled for third and his first top-five of 2021.
“We had a good night. We finally got on the right track,” said Hill after the race. “Those first two races didn’t go the way we wanted them to so this is a good way to bounce back, but it always stings a little bit when you come to a place that you’ve had success at and you don’t get the job done.
“Scott (Zipadelli, crew chief) and everybody back at the shop, they did a really good job bringing a really fast Toyota Tundra.”
Hill said the deeper Stage 3 went on, the handling on his truck began to change – keeping him from reeling in Busch and Nemechek in the closing laps.
“All in all, we just came up short tonight,” added Hill. “We just got too tight when the tires started cording and started chattering the left front. Can’t thank everybody at Ibraraki Toyopet enough for coming on board.
“Everything that all these guys do in Japan for us is a really big deal with everything going on. It’s really cool to see that. We’ll bounce back and go to Atlanta, a place that we’ve had some good runs at as well and see if we can get the job done there as well.”
As for Atlanta, his hometown track, Hill looks for redemption after letting the win get away on a late-race restart last year.
“I am probably excited as you can be to go back to Atlanta,” sounded Hill. “Having a five-six second lead and coming down to a green-white-checkered and our truck just not being great on a green-white-checkered, and we had a truck that was a really good long run truck.”
“There was things that I could have done differently to win that race, so to finish second it still burns me to this day.”
Hill says the characteristics of Atlanta fit his driving style and sees the March 20th race as an opportunity for win number seven.
“I’m more than ready to get to Atlanta. I wish were racing it tomorrow, so we could get out there. I love race tracks that are worn out and Atlanta is a worn-out race track, so I think we have a really good chance of going out there and finishing up front and hopefully coming up with a win.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01
