Xfinity Breakdown: Austin Hill on Top Again at Atlanta 

It was a familiar scene and outcome at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Saturday, Feb. 22 as Austin Hill dominated the NASCAR Xfinity Series race and scored the victory in the Bennett Transportation & Logistics 250, his fifth career win at the speedway and third in a row. 

Hill won both of the opening stages of the race and led 146 of the 163 laps. The only other driver to lead more than a single lap all night was Hill’s Richard Childress Racing teammate Jesse Love, who started from the pole and seemed to be one of the few drivers who was capable of challenging Hill’s dominance. Aric Almirola and Justin Allgaier also put up a fight in the closing laps of the race, but in the end there was no beating the RCR No. 21 machine.

Allgaier finished runner-up while Almirola took third. JR Motorsports driver Sammy Smith finished fourth, while rookie Nick Sanchez rallied back to a fifth-place finish after suffering nose damage during the opening stage of the race. 

The Winners 

If there was one driver who looked like they could dethrone Hill and steal the victory in the closing laps, it was Aric Almirola. Almirola has always shown great speed at superspeedways, and he used both his years of experience and his fast Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to his advantage, as he managed to get underneath Hill coming to the last lap and was side by side with him as they took the white flag.

However, Hill had more help from behind with Parker Retzlaff and Ryan Sieg pushing, which allowed him to clear Almirola into turn 1 and set sail. Almirola would finish third after slamming door to door with Allgaier coming across the finish line. 

It was also a strong result for Allgaier and his JR Motorsports teammate Sammy Smith, who both finished inside the top five and scored their best results at the track since it was reconfigured prior to the 2022 season. Allgaier also finished inside the top five in both stages, earning him the second-most points on the day behind Hill.

If there was a comeback award of the day, it would have to go to Nick Sanchez and Big Machine Racing, who finished fifth despite suffering nose damage early in the race while checking up to avoid an incident. While Sanchez seemed to have a hard time finding drivers who wanted to work with him and push his wounded Chevrolet to the front, he still showed great speed and persevered to score his first career top-five finish. 

It was also a strong day for the Burton cousins, as Jeb Burton finished sixth for Jordan Anderson Racing (his best result since his win at Talladega in 2023) and Harrison Burton finished 10th in his second start for AM Racing. 

Xfinity Series rookie Daniel Dye scored his first top 10 of the season with a seventh-place result (tying his career best) and Leland Honeyman scored the first top 10 for the newly formed Cope Family Racing team with an impressive eighth-place finish. 

Joe Gibbs Racing rookie William Sawalich also picked up his first career top 10 with a ninth-place result.

The Losers

Rookie Taylor Gray was putting together a solid run in his JGR Toyota, but with 46 laps to go in the final stage he couldn’t avoid Jeremy Clements’ spinning car, resulting in a 38th place finish. (Clements, meanwhile, would rebound to finish 11th). 

JRM driver Sam Mayer had put together a strong opening stint to the race with top three finishes in both stages, and he seemed poised to contend for the win late in the going. Unfortunately, with 21 laps to go Mayer’s Haas Factory Team Ford was hit in the left rear by Nick Sanchez, which resulted in Mayer spinning into Connor Zilisch and slamming nose first into the outside wall. Anthony Alfredo was also collected in the incident, which took both him and Mayer out of the race. 

It was also a disappointing result for Alpha Prime Racing’s Parker Retzlaff, who ran inside the top 10 for much of the race and even seemed like he’d have a shot at the win in the closing laps. However, Retzlaff made contact with the turn 1 wall on the final lap, and then got spun out on the backstretch after receiving a tap from Haas Factory driver Sheldon Creed, resulting in a 27th-place result for the Wisconsin driver.

The crash also collected Kaulig Racing rookie Christian Eckes, who like Retzlaff ran towards the front for most of the race and seemed well on his way to a solid result, but instead wound up finishing 29th with a wrecked racecar. 

Fuel for Thought 

With Hill’s dominating performance Saturday night, it’s hard to argue against him being one of the best superspeedway racers in series history. The Georgia driver has now won eight times at drafting tracks, tying him with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Tony Stewart for the most in Xfinity history.

While Atlanta may race a bit differently than Daytona or Talladega, there’s no question that Hill and RCR have mastered this style of racing, and at this point you can pretty much pencil them in as contenders anytime that the series heads to a superspeedway. 

Paint Scheme of the Week 

It was hard to miss Sam Mayer’s green and white Audibel Ford Mustang on track, as the vibrant paint scheme ran up front for most of the race. Unfortunately, Mayer wouldn’t see the checkered flag, as he would crash out in the final stage of the race. 

Starting P5 tonight in Atlanta. @HaasFactoryTeam brought a fast @Audibel_Hear Ford Mustang 💪#HearBetterConnectBetter #Audibel pic.twitter.com/wI2Mznq4Sw

— Sam Mayer (@sam_mayer_) February 22, 2025

Where to Next?

Next Saturday (March 1), the drivers of the NASCAR Xfinity Series head to Texas for the Focused Health 250 at the Circuit of the Americas, the first road course race of the season.

Last year’s event was won by Kyle Larson, who passed Austin Hill and Shane van Gisbergen on the final lap to score the victory. Coverage begins at 2 p.m. ET with television coverage on your local CW channel and radio coverage on the Motor Racing Network.