LAS VEGAS, Nev: Austin Hill had every intention of defending his Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway Xfinity Series win in Saturday afternoon’s The LiUNA! NASCAR Xfinity Series race, but the Richard Childress Racing driver seemed content to leave Sin City with another top-five in his back pocket.
Scoring the win in the first two Xfinity Series races of the season at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway and Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway, respectively, Hill’s approach to Saturday afternoon’s 200-lap race was similar to last year’s – fly under the radar and then attack.
While hovering inside the top-10 for most of the race, Hill’s No. 21 Bennett Chevrolet Camaro entered the picture after a long green flag run in Stage 3 that sent the field down to pit road for routine pit stops with about 35 laps remaining.
A quick pit stop allowed Hill to become a contender for his third straight win of the season. Still, in the closing laps of the race, the handling deteriorated for the Winston, Ga. native – allowing Chandler Smith and polesitter Cole Custer to take advantage of a vulnerable race car and leaving Hill with a fourth-place finish at the checkered flag.
While it wasn’t Hill’s third win of the year in as many races, the finish did bring the eight-time Xfinity Series winner, with his fourth consecutive top-10 finish dating back to the fall race in 2022.
“It was definitely of a little bit of an up-and-down day for us,” said Hill. “We stayed inside the top five a lot. Yeah, there at the end during the green flag pit stop, my guys did a hell of a job all day getting me on and off pit road.
“Got off pit road good and got into second, thought we were in a pretty decent spot there just kinda clicking off laps and trying to match what the 20 (John Hunter Nemechek) was doing.”
With the checkered flag in sight, Hill describes the decline in his car’s handling like flipping on a light switch.
“Yeah, it was like a light switch,” offered Hill about the worsening handling characteristics.
“I drove off in the corner, and the next thing I knew, I just didn’t have any right rear to lean on. Sliding the rears really bad all the way through the corner. I just kinda had to slow down to not slide the rears as bad as I was. That allowed the 81 (Chandler Smith) and 00 (Cole Custer) to get to me and get by me.”
Despite losing two positions in the final 10 laps of the race, Hill looked at the positive of the day, where he delivered his third top-five finish of the season and extended his points leader by 22 points over Smith heading to Phoenix (Ariz.) Raceway on March 9.
“All in all, a solid day. For us, to feel like we didn’t have a great car to come home with a top-five is big for us, and we’re just going to keep building this momentum going forward.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01 or email at [email protected].
