NASCAR
Austin Hill Takes Fourth Atlanta Xfinity Victory Since 2022
HAMPTON, Ga. – The overwhelming prerace favorite found a way to wheel it to victory lane in Atlanta. Austin Hill is triumphant once again at home, taking career win number four on the shrunk-down drafting oval. After being winless since February’s Atlanta race, Hill appears to be nearing championship form in perfect time for the Playoffs.
Even though Hill and RCR teammate Jesse Love were dominant in Stage 1, this first win went to Justin Allgaier. For JR Motorsports team No. 7, this marked a series-leading 14th stage win of 2024. AJ Allmendinger used alternate pit strategy to stay out and take Stage 2, his first Playoff bonus point of the year.
This race was turned on its head inside of the final 20 laps. While racing for a top-five spot, Allgaier made contact with Cole Custer entering turn three. This nudge ended up cutting the 7’s tire, taking out himself, the 00, and others. The rear bumper from Riley Herbst weirdly became lodged on Jesse Love’s roof, forcing a pit stop to remove the large debris.
Once the race resumed, Austin Hill soon motored his way around Chandler Smith for the top spot. Hill remained atop the running order for the final 12 laps, taking home his third 2024 victory and an Atlanta sweep.
“Oh my God,” Hill said. “It was just resilience with this whole Bennett No. 21 team. Our Chevrolet wasn’t handling great all day, it wasn’t as fast as Xfinity internet. It had plenty of speed actually, just the handle on it was tough all day. We had to dig deep for that one.”
“The No. 81 got into [turn] three and had me jacked up, he’s doing what he has to do to win. Very surprised that the No. 26 pushed me there, and didn’t go with a Toyota. Then I thought I messed up into [turns] one and two. I hate it that he got in the fence, I wasn’t trying to run him in the fence. I was just trying to get him aero-tight or loose. That happened to me a lot today. If anyone ran up the track from the bottom, I would have a big moment. I was trying to do that to him, then saw him get in the wall. I was like ‘oh man,’ and just had to keep the No. 48 there. I got down into [turn] three and got extremely tight. We had enough momentum off of [turn] four though that it didn’t matter.”
“This is insane, to win with this gold car, Bennett’s 50th anniversary, this is their biggest race of the entire year. To do this for our sponsor means a lot. They have over 500 people here. I can’t thank all of them enough, RCR, ECR engine was good all day. We’re going to celebrate this one because it didn’t come easy.”
Behind Hill at the checkers were: Parker Kligerman, AJ Allmendinger, Chandler Smith, and Corey Heim. Jesse Love, Sammy Smith, Josh Williams, Brandon Jones, and Ryan Truex were the rest of the top-10. Hear from some of these drivers below.
The NASCAR Xfinity Series returns to action next week from Watkins Glen, with only two regular season races left. The Mission 200 goes green Saturday at 3 p.m. ET on USA, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90. he upstate New York road course will be a prime winning opportunity for ringers AJ Allmendinger and Parker Kligerman.
Written by Peter Stratta
Be sure to follow us on Twitter/X
Be sure to follow the writer on Twitter/X
Photo Credits to Sean Gardner/Getty Images
