NASCAR
Austin Hill Advances into Maiden Championship 4 Bid with Homestead Beatdown
HOMESTEAD, Fla. – If Homestead-Miami Speedway was any indication, the Xfinity Series Championship Race will be a heavyweight title fight. Taking his first win at Homestead and only win so far this year not on a drafting track, Austin Hill looked elite on Saturday. The RCR No. 21 Chevrolet put together a max-points day for arguably his most impactful Xfinity win to date. Half of the Xfinity Series Championship 4 is now decided, with two contenders from Welcome, North Carolina’s campus.
Hill did not sniff the lead until the closing laps of Stage 1, but was a constant threat from that point onward. Aside from Cole Custer making a three-wide pass to start Stage 3, the 21 was in the wind for much of the afternoon.
Custer initially cycled out of the final green flag pit stop sequence ahead of Hill, but the battle was anything but over. Lap after lap the 21 slowly got larger in Custer’s rearview mirrors. Hill made the winning pass with 12 laps left, leaving Custer in the dust.
“I work so hard at this, a lot of people doubt me, but I wake up everyday to prove everyone wrong,” Hill said. “That I deserve to be here, I deserve to race for a championship. This 21 team deserves it just as much as I do, they work their asses off each and everyday, just like I do. I have to give it to those guys, they just gave me a hell of a car. I didn’t have to run the wall, I really could run wherever I wanted to. Well we had one bad run, that one restart there towards the end, where the green flag stop just got so loose.”
“I can honestly say I’ve never cried coming to the start/finish line. I couldn’t even get my emotions together coming into turn one after the checkers. All the hard work and dedication that goes into this. I don’t think everyone’s going to understand what this means to me, for my family, for Bennett, this 21 car was fast today, and I just had to be on it.”
“I made some mistakes today, but we rebounded. The pit crew was badass like they always are. I knew once we got off pit road and we were in touch with the 00 I just had to go to work. Just not burn my right front or right rear up and just save it for the long run. As soon as I saw (Custer) start backing up to me, I knew it was game on. This is amazing, to be able to go to the final four, I’ve worked so hard at this. My dreams came true.”
“If we come all prepared, we have a fast Bennett Chevrolet, and I do my part, keeping my head in the game all day long, we can go win a championship just as good as the rest of the field. I’m so excited to go to Martinsville stress-free, I can go have some fun there. Martinsville hasn’t exactly been good to me, we’re going to celebrate this one and my wife’s birthday tomorrow.”
Behind Hill and Custer, Aric Almirola, Jesse Love, and Sheldon Creed were the top-five. Riley Herbst, Ryan Sieg, Justin Allgaier, Sam Mayer, and AJ Allmendinger rounded out the top-10.
Hill now joins AJ Allmendinger as locks for the Xfinity Series Championship 4. Take a look at the updated Playoff standings below heading into the Round of 8 cut race.
The final two tickets to Phoenix will be handed out next week in Martinsville. The green flag will fly Saturday at 4 p.m. ET on The CW, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90. Last year’s National Debt Relief 250 saw Austin Hill lose a Championship 4 berth in the final corner; will drama be pegged that high again?
Written by Peter Stratta
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Photo Credit to James Gilbert/Getty Images
