AUSTIN, Texas: NASCAR Xfinity Series rookie Austin Hill continued his early-season strength during Saturday afternoon’s Pit Boss 250 at Circuit of the Americas.
Despite not being a serious factor during the first two stages at the 20-turn, 3.4-mile race course, Hill used Stage 3 during the first Xfinity road course race of the season to propel his No. 21 Global Industrial Chevrolet into contention and with the help of a few yellow flags late in the sixth race of the season, Hill was able to accelerate past the chaos on the last restart of the race and deliver his third top-two finish of the 2022 season.
“Everyone at RCR did a heck of job building this No. 21 Global Industrial Chevrolet, and it means a lot to be able to show that with a second-place finish at COTA,” said Hill. “I guess AJ
Allmendinger was just a little bit better than I was, but today showed that we can run with him. We started the race eighth and we kept it clean all day.”
Hill, a native of Winston, Ga. credited his COTA Xfinity Series success to crew chief Andy Street.
“Andy Street did a really good job with the calls on pit road to gain the track position that we needed. It was a solid effort, but we’ll go back and debrief just to see where I can improve,” added Hill.
“There were certain spots that I thought AJ was better than us, but we’re still learning and we’ll get the job done next time. Thanks to everyone at Global Industrial for coming on board. I love road course racing.”
After a rough stretch on the west coast where Hill only managed a best 17th place outing at Phoenix (Ariz.) Raceway, the eight-time NASCAR Camping World Truck Series winner rebounded at Atlanta with a second.
A week later – another second but his defining victory in the season-opener at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway last month has propelled Hill into the Playoffs – but with the driver eager to deliver more victories for the Welcome, N.C.-based team.
Next up, Richmond, a track that Hill has two prior starts in the Truck Series where he delivered top-10 efforts – including a track best eighth in 2020.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
