It’s possible the only one team capable of beating Richard Childress Racing at superspeedways in 2025 is … Richard Childress Racing.
Austin Hill dominated the first two stages of the United Rentals 300 on Feb. 15 at Daytona International Speedway and led a race-high 56 laps. Then, a rear gear leak forced Hill to retire the No. 21 Chevy and watch the final few laps from the garage.
While some may not want to admit it, Hill has been king of the superspeedway since arriving in the NASCAR Xfinity Series full time. His three combined wins at Daytona and Atlanta Motor Speedway last year marked his third consecutive season with multiple wins at drafting tracks. Since Atlanta’s repave and reconfiguration, Hill has four wins and an average finish of 3.0 over six races.
The mechanical failure gave up more than a great opportunity for a win. It ended Hill’s hopes of winning four straight February races at Daytona. Only Dale Earnhardt and Tony Stewart have done so previously. Considering how much Hill contending, let alone winning outright, was a given before the race is part of what made the 33rd-place finish so devastating.
“I wish we could have lost this on our own terms and it not be a mechanical failure,” Hill said standing by his car in the garage on Saturday. “I wish I would take the white flag and get up on my lid on the backstretch and lose it that way than lose it this way.
“To have a fast car like this, I know RCR is going to be beating their head over it for a while. I rather lose it myself just because of the simple fact that I know my guys are going to lose sleep over it. I hate it.”
RCR might still be scratching their heads as to what happened to Hill, but they still wound up with the trophy. With the dominant car of the day off track, who leaped into the lead and took control of the pack over the final quarter of the race? Naturally it was his teammate Jesse Love, himself a winner of four superspeedway stages and a race at Talladega in his rookie season.
In 2024, the only way RCR could get beat at the superspeedways was to have both Hill and Love sitting in the garage or on pit road. At the August race at Daytona, Hill wrecked on the opening lap after having to start from the rear while Love got put into the wall with 25 laps to go. Joe Gibbs Racing and Ryan Truex went on to win.
At the Talladega playoff race, Hill was collected in a crash with 20 to go. Love was involved in another crash with five to go and still managed a sixth-place run with massive front end damage.
How has RCR become such a dominant force at superspeedways? Many would point to what’s under the hood with the team working with ECR Engines, the team’s engine development subcompany. They bring a lot of power, but that alone doesn’t win superspeedway races. Managing your speed and position to control the pack does.
Watch the final quarter of the race at Daytona and you’ll see Love masterfully control the dominant line at all times, never putting himself in a bad spot or throwing a block that’s unnecessary or too late.
Speed gets you to the front, but the communication and understanding of drafting tracks for both drivers and their spotters — Derek Kneeland for Hill and Brandon Benesch for Love — is what keeps them there.
To beat RCR, teams have to have those two things: pace and superspeedway knowledge. Not to mention a bit of luck. Who has the tools to challenge Hill and Love at Atlanta-onward?
Haas Factory Team had a pair of cars on the podium in its first race with the lineup of Sheldon Creed and Sam Mayer. Creed, a former RCR driver himself, has a solid resume on superspeedways. The only thing they may need is time to form an even better chemistry with a lot of new faces to the team.
JR Motorsports was the top dog at superspeedways until recently. There’s no doubt of the pace and wealth of knowledge within the organization, but its driver lineup this year includes a pair of rookies with very little drafting experience. Again, it’ll take time and growing pains to get to where Connor Zilisch and Carson Kvapil will be on par with their teammates and competition.
Joe Gibbs Racing has two rookie drivers as well, but both have experience in the draft from their ARCA Menards and Craftsman Truck Series days. Its four-car stable could potentially outmuscle a two-car RCR tandem — if it can keep its four cars together, that is. Taylor Gray had a shot at winning Saturday and might have done so had it not been for accidents that took out his three teammates and surrounded his Toyota with rival Chevys and Fords on the final restart.
Maybe RCR beats themselves by losing to one of their own engines. ECR provides horsepower to Kaulig Racing, Big Machine Racing, Our Motorsports and Jordan Anderson Racing. Kaulig has multiple superspeedway wins while JAR won at Talladega in 2023 with Jeb Burton. For those teams — and really the entire Xfinity field — they just need to show up with one more element to potentially dethrone RCR.
A little bit of luck.
James Krause joined Frontstretch in March 2024 as a contributor. Krause was born and raised in Illinois and graduated from Northern Illinois University. He currently works in La Crosse, Wisconsin as a local sports reporter, including local short track racing. Outside of racing, Krause loves to keep up with football, music, anime and video games.
“So, You Want to Beat RCR at a Superspeedway”
I just wish that beating an RCR team was something that all other teams were trying to achieve in the cup series, too.