NASCAR
Austin Hill Wins Fourth O’Reilly Series Opener from Daytona
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – As much as things have changed for the 2026 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, some things have stayed the same. Richard Childress Racing remains the standard of excellence in the draft, leading all but 15 of 120 laps in Daytona. RCR takes this checkered flag for a fifth straight season, with four of them coming from Austin Hill. Extending his own record to 11 Saturday superspeedway victories, the 21 appeared unstoppable once again.
From the pole, superspeedway menace Austin Hill led the majority of Stage 1. This opening run would be bookended by major accidents, both at the initial start and coming to the green and white checkered flag. Stage 2 would be more of the same from the No. 21 Chevrolet, chasing a fourth career Daytona February win.
Hill remained atop the leaderboard for much of the final stage as well, retaking command for good with six laps left. The 21 did have to outlast three late restarts, showing it was anything but an easy win for Hill. Aside from the now 15-time O’Reilly Series winner, very few cars ended the season opener left unscathed and without damage.
There’s more trouble! pic.twitter.com/6qY4yfw2ku
— NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts (@NASCAROReillyAP) February 15, 2026
“I love these guys, man,” Hill said. “Everybody that’s been at Chevrolet, everybody at RCR, ECR, CT Springs, everyone that makes this possible. There’s a lot of other sponsors that I’m not talking about right now, but yeah. You know, for me, when we went back out after the green flag stop, I just kept getting really tight off of [turn] four, and I would get really loose. I’m like ‘man, if it comes down to the end of this thing and I’m getting pushed hard, I don’t think I’m going to win the race. I think I’m going to end up wrecked.'”
“That’s what I love about this team. They believe in me. I believe in them. I know Chad Haney, my crew chief, on the box, he was, like, ‘man, this is a really tough decision to go from being in third to go back to 14th’ or whatever it was when we restarted.”
“It just goes to show how good this team is. We had that restart. Nobody was going middle, and I’m like ‘sure, I’ll take it.’ Drove right up through there.”
“Then I wanted to work with my teammate there at the end, Jesse [Love]. But I just knew that the bottom was going to surge, or I felt like it was. The top lane always gets discombobulated and they move around a lot. And everyone is trying to screw everybody over. So I just thought the bottom lane was probably the best thing for me.”
“I thought I messed up on the white flag lap off of [turn] two. I got way out. Luckily, I was able to make the block with 7, and then I almost missed the block on whoever the blue car was. Here it is right here. I almost missed this block. Right when I got down, he gave me a shot. I had to save the car, but after that it was just hammer it down and just hoping that they wouldn’t get back to me. Daytona has been so good to me. I love this place. It’s always fun to win and always fun to be here in victory lane.”
Behind Hill at the checkers were: Justin Allgaier, Ryan Sieg, Jordan Anderson, and Sammy Smith. Ryan Ellis, Carson Kvapil, Blaine Perkins, Jesse Love, and Rajah Caruth were the rest of the top-10. Hear from a few of these top finishers below.
.@RyanSiegRacing did not think he could get back to third after an early strategy went south, but the @RSSRacing__ driver is excited to carry this momentum forward from @DAYTONA #UnitedRentals300 #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/LvXmpW8h56
— Peter Stratta (@peterstratta) February 15, 2026
.@j66anderson is all smiles after yet another underdog top-five night from @DAYTONA with @JARnascar.
The part time driver/owner was fourth tonight. #UnitedRentals300 #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/cyrv61tm8X
— Peter Stratta (@peterstratta) February 15, 2026
.@DaleJr speaks highly of the cohesiveness between all 4 @JRMotorsports cars tonight, especially giving newcomer @rajahcaruth_ high praise.
A past superspeedway ace himself, Junior also says @RCRracing cars are as great as ever here but they are closing the gap.… pic.twitter.com/LIH7LrteQg
— Peter Stratta (@peterstratta) February 15, 2026
The O’Reilly Auto Parts season continues from Hill’s hometown in Atlanta. The aptly-sponsored Bennett Transportation & Logistics 250 goes green on Saturday, February 21 at 5 p.m. ET on The CW, PRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. Hill will try and remain king of the draft with a possible sixth EchoPark Speedway win.
Written by Peter Stratta
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Photo Credits to Sean Gardner/Getty Images
