Austin Hill is inevitable.
For the third year in a row, Austin Hill opened the NASCAR Xfinity Series campaign with a victory at Daytona International Speedway in February. Death, taxes and the Richard Childress No. 21.
This latest triumph was just a ridiculous feat however, because it seemed like a supernatural force conspired against Hill over 300 miles and none of it mattered, because he won anyway. Hill was involved in the big multi-car crash but drove back to the front of the field with a bear bonded right front.
He suffered a pit road speeding penalty and drove to the front. Then he cut a tire coming to the penultimate restart with 12 to go and drove back to the front.
On the final restart, needing to pick off three cars … he drove to the front.
“Our car is obviously really fast,” Hill said afterwards in the understatement of the year. “I mean, it shows in qualifying but we’re only winning poles by half a tenth or maybe a tenth.
“It’s not like we’re winning by half a second with a substantial amount of speed over the entire field. But it’s the minor details, little details that matter to (Richard Childress Racing) and (RCR-ECR Engines) and everyone at the shop that do a really good job and have an eye for those details.
“Everyone at the team wants the car to unload a certain way and we want it to drive a certain way.”
It says a lot about the car, in this era of parity, that the No. 21 can get damaged and be forced to the rear three overall times and still will it forward over and over again. Like, other drivers aren’t even working with him anymore because they don’t want to help him get to the front, even at their own expense.
Hill lost his ‘wing man’ in teammate Jesse Love to the big crash and none of it inhibited his means of driving to the lead.
“At the end, there were a couple of Chevrolets, some Toyotas and Fords and everyone kind of spread out spaced out,” Hill said.
So he just won several one-on-one battles and got to the lead.
“People were going to be jockeying for position,” Hill said. “So my number one goal was to get to the lead and then just try to control it from there. Luckily enough it all worked out.”
The past three years suggest there isn’t much luck to it.
Shane Van Gisbergen’s eventful debut
Shane van Gisbergen had an eventful first full race at Daytona.
The three-time Australian Supercars champion, who is making a full-time switch to NASCAR after winning in his debut Cup start on the Streets of Chicago last July, finished 12th in his debut Xfinity experience.
He was involved in three incidents, unintentionally starting two of them with Jeb Burton, but was still rolling come the checkered flag and ended up with a decent points day towards his inaugural championship run.
“Everything was just wild,” van Gisbergen told Sportsnaut after the race. “I was wondering what it was going to be like. Once I settled in, I really enjoyed the flow of it. It took me a while to stop reacting to the loose in and just let the car flow.”
His crash on Lap 37 was a case of wrong place and wrong time as pole sitter Jesse Love got turned in front of the field. He clipped Burton in the closing laps and soon got spun into the grass due to a hit from Parker Kligerman but kept the car pointed straight and would continue.
He hit Burton again when trying to slow for another incident ahead of them.
“I made one error with the 27,” he said. “Getting up, I misjudged how quickly it side-drafted him back and unfortunately I spun him out. That was a shame to make that error. The rest of them we just got involved in other people’s messes. It was crazy. Pit crew did an awesome job, WeatherTech Chevy is beat up. Still got a great result.”
All told, he had fun doing a kind of racing that he said was unlike anything he has done in his career.
“It’s still racing but it’s not a type of racing I have done anything like before but it’s a skill I need to learn. There are six superspeedways a year so I need to get better, understand it better moving forward.”
SVG was met after the race from Kaulig Racing president Chris Rice, who is overseeing his Xfinity Series effort, but also NASCAR president Steve Phelps, who wanted to congratulate him on his first full-time start.”
Herbst penalized
If there was anyone who looked like they could take the fight to Hill on Monday night, it would have been Riley Herbst.
The Stewart Haas Racing No. 98 led twice for eight laps and led the field to green alongside Ryan Sieg with 11 laps to go. Sieg was the leader but NASCAR deemed that Herbst lagged back to teammate Cole Custer for a push and didn’t roll with the leader.
It was objectively a close call and those inside the garage even felt like it was a bad call. There was a caution immediately afterwards so Herbst had to restart from the tail of the field and finished sixth.
“You can look at any restart today in the 500 and everybody gives the leader the right, the edge, because that is what they earned as the leader,” Herbst said. “I did the same thing I’ve done my whole life restarting on the front row and gave the leader the opportunity to fire first. I saw his nose pick up and I went off that. We raced for I think a whole lap and a half and then there was a caution and NASCAR called that I laid back to my teammate on the restart.”
Herbst aggressively called out race control for the decision and he was called to the series hauler to discuss it afterwards.
“They walked me through the line in the sand and I stepped over that line,” Herbst said. We left agreeing to disagree. I don’t envy their calls they have to make each week on a subjective call like that. It is what it is. They said I was at (Sieg’s) quarter panel and they would have given me the door number.”
JAR shines
It was simultaneously a heartbreaking but triumphant day for Jordan Anderson Racing.
The team owner, in a part-time ride, led laps late but couldn’t hold it and finished third ahead of full-time teammate Parker Retzlaff. The other full-time driver, Jeb Burton, contender but suffered the two spins and finished 26th.
Anderson inherited the lead when Herbst served his penalty but got too far ahead of the pack. He was swallowed up in the other leaders. It was the first time he restarted an Xfinity race from the lead and he conceded that he just got too quiet.
“All those emotions mushed together,” Anderson said. “I wanted to lead the race. Try to go for win here. Crazy couple of laps there.”
He said it reminded him of the craziness of racing Legend Cars at Summer Shootout at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
“What a great start for our team,” Andersons said. “Our guys have worked harder in the offseason than all of last year. We’re hungry. We got a taste of it with our first win at Talladega (with Burton) last year. We want more of it. We want to work for it.
“Me and Parker finishing in the top-5. Jeb ran up front all night and I know he got spun into the grass but scored stage points early on. I’m just smiling ear to ear.”
And he was.
He continued to espouse the work ethic and effort from his team. He was even asked how could he could be this happy even after losing a race at Daytona that he was leading late.
“I sat in the car for a minute before getting out and I was like, ‘man, I was that close,’ he said. “In the big picture of our team. A third and a fourth, the purse money that we can reinvest into our team means more springs, more parts, more pieces. Great start for Parker. He believes in what we’re doing. Jeb believes in this. We had a lot of partners here. There are so many reasons to smile tonight and I’m excited for what we’re working on.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.