HAMPTON, Ga. — For for most of 163 laps Saturday evening (Feb. 22), no one had anything for Austin Hill in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race being held at his home track and that was sponsored by his own.
At least not for more than a few moments.
In a three-lap shootout around Atlanta Motor Speedway, Justin Allgaier was the last driver to mount a worthy charge on Richard Childress Racing’s No. 21 car.
After getting a good push from teammate Sammy Smith out of Turn 2, Allgaier had a few brief seconds where he could have moved his No. 7 Chevrolet into the high line, blocking Hill’s momentum as he was pushed by Aric Almirola.
But he didn’t.
His decision was based on what he experienced earlier in the race.
“I just watched the run behind me in the mirror and those guys were obviously hooked up,” Allgaier said. “Aric was pushing him like crazy.
“And I had gotten enough separation from Sammy that I knew my speed wasn’t going to be there. … I did it earlier in the race. I pulled up to get in front of the outside row and got swallowed up middle of three wide and and I think I was about 20th by the time it sorted back out.
“So I made the decision that I felt like preserved the best finish.”
That was a narrow second-place finish after Allgaier slammed doors with Almirola coming through the tri-oval for the last time to take the checkered flag.
“He came over and we talked about it,” said Allgaier, who shared a brief conversation and a fist bump with Almirola. “He said he was trying to back up to me to get a run on (Hill).
“I think he backed up a little more than I expected and I just went by him.”
Out of 163 laps around the 1.54-mile track, Hill led a career-best 146. The only other driver to lead more than one lap was his RCR teammate, Jesse Love, with 14.
“(Hill) was so fast,” said Smith, who finished fourth. “It would have taken at least three to four of us to get there.”
Nick Sanchez, who placed a career-best fifth in his No. 48 Chevrolet, said that would have been a tall task with how things were going in the bottom lane.
“It feels like people weren’t really working well together on the bottom to get to the 21,” said Sanchez with a smile. “It takes some teamwork. Nobody was wanting to do that.”
Hill now has five wins in seven career Xfinity Series starts at Atlanta. That’s on top of three wins in eight starts at Daytona International Speedway.
What makes the Georgia native so good at superspeedways?
“I wish I could tell you,” Allgaier said. “Their superspeedway program has been phenomenal. They qualified on the pole by nearly two tenths and it’s been that way kind of everywhere we’ve gone.”
At the start of Hill’s post-race press conference, a NASCAR moderator listed off a multitude of stats that Hill has achieved on superspeedway tracks. That included a series record 764 laps led on them. He’s also tied for the most drafting track wins with eight.
“Dale (Earnhardt) Jr. will hate that because he doesn’t consider Atlanta a drafting track,” Hill said. “But as I’ve told Dale, don’t hate the player, hate the game.”
Daniel McFadin is a 10-year veteran of the NASCAR media corp. He wrote for NBC Sports from 2015 to October 2020. He currently works full time for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and is lead reporter and an editor for Frontstretch. He is also host of the NASCAR podcast "Dropping the Hammer with Daniel McFadin" presented by Democrat-Gazette.
You can email him at danielmcfadin@gmail.com.