‘What Could’ve Been’: Austin Hill Falls Short of 4th Straight Spring Daytona Win

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – A red-faced Austin Hill stared at his neutralized No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet from the NASCAR Xfinity Series garage at Daytona International Speedway.

The Georgia native had just retired the vehicle Saturday (Feb. 15) after leading an impressive, race-high 56 laps and sweeping both stage wins. Even more impressive, he was on his way to earning a fourth consecutive spring race win at Daytona. It’s a feat only accomplished by two other drivers before him: Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt.

But achieving the same greatness was not meant to be. Hill’s rear gear failed within the final 50 laps, and he went behind the wall.

“When I laid my head down at night, it’s like I’m going to think about what could have been,” Hill told reporters in the garage. “But all in all, solid effort for everybody at RCR. I hate it for them.”

The 30-year-old started fourth in the event and quickly made his way to the lead before the end of stage one. After a bad pit stop, the No. 21 found its way back into the lead right after stage two. For most of the night, it appeared to be the RCR team’s race to lose.

“Every time I’d try to get a run, the [RCR cars] were just so fast that you get this big run at them, and they have enough speed to just deal with your run,” Haas Factory driver Sheldon Creed told Frontstretch. “You kind of just spit them back out there in front of you.”

But almost immediately after the stage two victory, Hill noticed something was wrong.

“I shut the engine off, Hill said. “I knew something was weird, like something just didn’t seem right. I immediately said on the radio like, ‘Hey, something smells off’ like it smelled like rear gear or something.”

Something to monitor for our leader.@_AustinHill reports a strange smell, possibly linked to a fluid leak. pic.twitter.com/NapJViA9p7

— NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) February 15, 2025

Hill turned the engine back on, but long-term, it didn’t get any better.

“I had some smoke in the cockpit,” Hill recalled. “But I wasn’t really saying nothing about it, and it just got worse and worse, and then finally, coming on the backstretch there, before pit road, it got a massive vibration.

“I knew right then and there, it was either something with the rear gear, a hub, something with the rear of the car, and, as soon as we came down pit road, it was smoking and really, really hot.”

The situation worsens for the No. 21. pic.twitter.com/SQQvscpO6y

— NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) February 15, 2025

The storied team tried one more time to bring the car back to racing contention. Alas, the issue didn’t subside. Despite his early success, Hill was out of the race, and most certainly disappointed.

Not because he lost, though; but because he lost without a fight.

“I wish that we could have lost this race on our own terms, and it not be from a mechanical failure,” Hill lamented. “I’d almost wish to take the white flag and get up on my lid on the backstretch and lose it that way than to lose it this way.”

While Hill’s loss was disappointing for his team, there was still some solace left to be had from his RCR teammate.

Jesse Love, the driver of Hill’s sister car, went on to win his second career Xfinity Series victory in the No. 2. It was also his second superspeedway win.

And it came after some coaching from the seasoned Xfinity veteran Hill.

“Austin’s helped me out a ton,” Love said during his post-race press conference. “I came here last year as a rookie and because of him, I had a wealth of knowledge, and I’m in this spot today because he was selfless enough in the moment to help me out when I needed it and didn’t hide anything from me.”

While Hill’s streak may have ended, the spring Daytona streak, for Richard Childress Racing at least, is still very much alive.

And Hill, while missing out on victory lane, remained a reason for it.