NASCAR
Austin Hill Wins Ag-Pro 300 at Talladega after Avoiding Last-Lap Crash
TALLADEGA, Ala. – One of the greatest superspeedway racers in Xfinity Series history checked off the lone empty box on Saturday. Austin Hill is finally victorious at Talladega Superspeedway, but needed a but of luck on his side to get the job done. After Connor Zilisch was spun from the lead on the last lap, Hill just barely had position over Jeb Burton at the time of caution. This lucky break gives the RCR No. 21 a third victory of 2025, and completes a superspeedway trifecta for Hill.
Jesse Love led all of Stage 1 from pole, holding the top spot until early in Stage 2. Love would split the Stage wins with teammate Austin Hill, finishing just behind the No. 21 at the second checkered flag. Despite some very tight racing up front, both stages ran caution-free.
Love cycled back to the lead by the time green flag pit stops began, but lost ground under service. After pit stops shook out, the Chevrolet brigade was initially set back. They were all saved, however, by the first on-track incident of the day when multiple drivers spun into turn one.
Hill soon muscled his way back to the point, and held serve into another restart. Inside of the last ten laps though, Connor Zilisch manhandled the lead from the 21. The No. 88 Chevrolet was in command at the white flag, and sitting pretty on the final lap.
Out of turn two though, contact from Love sent Zilisch spinning hard into the inside SAFER Barrier. An immediate caution ultimately gave the win to Austin Hill, who was ahead of Jeb Burton by the slimmest of margins. The superspeedway menace now has a winning record on all three drafting tracks.
After complaining over the radio about back pain, Zilisch did get out of his wrecked car without assistance and was cleared by the infield care center.
“Our Bennett Chevrolet was as fast as Xfinity Mobile all day,” Hill said. “Man, we really had to work for that one. It just seemed like our car was really good. Everybody at RCR and ECR Engines was bad to the bone like always. We had to work for that one. I thought the 2 was really good.”
“When we got the push from the 2 going into (turn) one, and I was behind the 48, I kind of shaved left like I was going to go to the inside. The 2 got there, to the inside of me, and I thought that was a bad mistake on my part. I should have covered that run that he had and I didn’t, so I thought we were done. I just locked in and started pushing the heck out of the 2. Me and Jesse (Love) worked really well all day together for the most part.”
“I was pushing him as hard as I possibly could to go to the top. I knew he would have a really good run down the backstretch, and I figured he was going to go left and try to get bottom. When he did, I knew that I still had help out back, so I was just trying to keep my help. I see (Zilisch) spin to the inside, and I’m looking left, looking at the light, and I couldn’t tell.”
“I knew it was either me or the 27 (Jeb Burton). Man, to win any way that you win on is always great. To finally conquer Talladega, that’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a really long time.”
“I just really wanted to win it. We won at all these other superspeedways, to finally get it done at all of them, it just shows that this 21 team can win at any of them. We’re really good at this style of racing.”
“I got to give a huge shoutout to my spotter Derek Kneeland. Without him, I can’t do half the stuff I do inside this racecar. I’m going to give it up to him today, he worked extremely hard up on top of that roof. We’re going to celebrate this one.”
Behind the front trio of Hill, Burton, and Love were Justin Allgaier and Matt DiBenedetto. Anthony Alfredo, Blaine Perkins, Harrison Burton, Sheldon Creed, and Daniel Dye rounded out the top-10.
Following Talladega, the Xfinity Series season has crossed its one-third point. Half of the 12-man Playoff grid is occupied by race winners, with Talladega marking Hill’s third triumph. Take a look at the current Playoff standings below.
Xfinity Series competitors will be back in action next week from Texas Motor Speedway. The Andy’s Frozen Custard 300 was Sam Mayer’s first win a season ago; can he find similar luck this time? The Lone Star State green flag flies Saturday at 2 p.m. ET on The CW, PRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Written by Peter Stratta
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Photo Credits to Logan Riely/Getty Images
