Austin Hill once again won a NASCAR Xfinity Series race at reconfigured Atlanta Motor Speedway, his fourth in six starts, but it was how he won that generated the most attention.
Corey Heim, driving a Toyota out of the Sam Hunt Racing stable, chose to follow Hill in the Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet instead of Chandler Smith in the Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota coming to the white flag.
That decision stalled out Smith, who had led a second best 28 laps, but also gave Heim a run to the outside of Hill. That run was blocked, forcibly into the wall, with Heim falling back to fifth behind Smith and Hill went onto win his third race of the season.
Hill was surprised Heim didn’t just push Smith by and sort the race out between them.
“He got underneath me and I was very surprised the 26 went with me,” Hill said. “I’m sideways as the 26 is pushing me and then he got to the right rear and I thought I screwed up there and I tried to run him up the hill a little bit to get him tight or loose a little bit.
“Because it seemed like guys that would get underneath me would run up the hill and run me up the hill and it would get me either loose or tight, depending on the situation, and I would have to lift and they would get clear.
“That’s what I was trying to do and he ended up getting into the fence, which isn’t what I was trying to do, because I don’t need any enemies going into the playoffs. I was just trying to win the race.”
That’s all Heim was trying to do too.
“It wasn’t in my best interest to go to the bottom,” Heim said. “We didn’t have the speed we needed to make that work but my car handled really good so I wanted to try to get to the top of the 21 and we did.”
From there, Heim said it was just hard-nosed racing for the win at the new Atlanta.
“He ran me up the track but I probably would have done the same thing in his shoes,” Heim said. “It’s just superspeedway racing and you have to be really aggressive when you’re the leader like that. I feel like I put us in a really good position but it just didn’t work out.”
Smith wanted the help and he expected it too.
“I’m kind of speechless, honestly,” Smith said. “There are a lot of different things that I could have done. I could have been more selfish when I got cleared and went to the bottom and covered that and controlled the race for sure.
“But I was trying to be a good teammate, and that didn’t pay for me today, as usual.”
When asked on the USA Network broadcast if he expected a conversation from Toyota executives, he didn’t seem keen on having one about not pushing Smith.
“I’ll have a discussion about when to make the move maybe, but that’s about it,” he said. “The move was going to be made on a straightaway, not the middle of the corner. So if he wanted me to push him by, I feel like if he just would’ve dropped back to my bumper out of [Turn] 4 on the straightaway and had ourselves both an opportunity to win the race, I would’ve gladly pushed him. I mean, he had no run or no momentum, so why go to the bottom at that point?
“I came here to win the race, and for a team like Sam Hunt Racing to have an opportunity at their first win, I want to give them that opportunity.”
Hill ties Shane Van Gisbergen for the series lead in wins, all of his coming on superspeedway tracks, and SVG’s coming on road courses. Hill is currently fourth in the championship standings and the second ranked driver in playoff points.
He would be the second ranked seed if the playoffs were to start today but there are still two more races left at Watkins Glen and Bristol.
NASCAR Xfinity Series Race – Focused Health 250
Atlanta Motor Speedway
Hampton, Georgia
Saturday, September 7, 2024
1. (4) Austin Hill, Chevrolet, 163.
2. (16) Parker Kligerman, Chevrolet, 163.
3. (6) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 163.
4. (8) Chandler Smith, Toyota, 163.
5. (21) Corey Heim(i), Toyota, 163.
6. (1) Jesse Love #, Chevrolet, 163.
7. (19) Sammy Smith, Chevrolet, 163.
8. (13) Josh Williams, Chevrolet, 163.
9. (18) Brandon Jones, Chevrolet, 163.
10. (7) Ryan Truex, Toyota, 163.
11. (37) Kyle Weatherman, Chevrolet, 163.
12. (17) Parker Retzlaff, Chevrolet, 163.
13. (22) Lawless Alan(i), Ford, 163.
14. (15) Anthony Alfredo, Chevrolet, 163.
15. (26) Brennan Poole, Chevrolet, 163.
16. (28) Kyle Sieg, Ford, 163.
17. (35) Leland Honeyman #, Chevrolet, 163.
18. (27) Mason Maggio(i), Chevrolet, 163.
19. (24) Blaine Perkins, Ford, 163.
20. (25) Nick Leitz, Chevrolet, 163.
21. (34) Ryan Ellis, Chevrolet, 163.
22. (33) David Starr, Chevrolet, 163.
23. (30) Garrett Smithley, Chevrolet, 163.
24. (20) Jeb Burton, Chevrolet, 162.
25. (5) Sheldon Creed, Toyota, 160.
26. (9) Riley Herbst, Ford, 158.
27. (12) Shane Van Gisbergen #, Chevrolet, 157.
28. (2) Taylor Gray(i), Toyota, Suspension, 154.
29. (36) Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, Suspension, 149.
30. (10) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, Accident, 146.
31. (3) Cole Custer, Ford, Accident, 144.
32. (14) Ryan Sieg, Ford, Accident, 144.
33. (32) Morgen Baird, Ford, 142.
34. (23) CJ McLaughlin, Chevrolet, Engine, 112.
35. (29) Matt DiBenedetto, Ford, Oil Line, 80.
36. (11) Sam Mayer, Chevrolet, Accident, 77.
37. (31) Dawson Cram(i), Chevrolet, Engine, 18.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 118.514 mph.
Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 7 Mins, 5 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.340 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 6 for 36 laps.
Lead Changes: 12 among 9 drivers.
Lap Leaders: J. Love # 1-15;S. Creed 16;J. Love # 17-24;J. Allgaier 25-43;A. Allmendinger 44-82;L. Honeyman # 83;T. Gray(i) 84-95;C. Smith 96-107;C. Custer 108-131;A. Allmendinger 132;C. Custer 133-135;C. Smith 136-151;A. Hill 152-163.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): AJ Allmendinger 2 times for 40 laps; Chandler Smith 2 times for 28 laps; Cole Custer 2 times for 27 laps; Jesse Love # 2 times for 23 laps; Justin Allgaier 1 time for 19 laps; Austin Hill 1 time for 12 laps; Taylor Gray(i) 1 time for 12 laps; Sheldon Creed 1 time for 1 lap; Leland Honeyman # 1 time for 1 lap.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 7,21,98,18,2,1,9,00,81,19
Stage #2 Top Ten: 16,8,00,98,7,2,19,81,97,21