Austin Hill, the all-time leader in superspeedway wins and laps led in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, had one thing he’d yet to add to his resume; a win at Talladega Superspeedway.
Not anymore.
Hill won the Ag-Pro 300 on Saturday (April 26) after a wreck by Connor Zilisch on the final lap froze the field entering turn 3 for his third win of the season.
“We really had to work for that one,” Hill told The CW. “Our car was really good. Everybody at RCR [Richard Childress Racing] and ECR Engines are bad to the bone as always, but we really had to work for that one.
“… I just really wanted to win it. We’ve won at all these other superspeedways, and to finally get it done at all of them, it shows the No. 21 team can do it at any of them.”
King of the Hill … and the superspeedways. 👑 pic.twitter.com/crQWfLkCFI
— NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) April 26, 2025
Zilisch led the field down the backstretch when a push gone wrong by Jesse Love sent him spinning toward the infield wall. The caution waved, and Hill was declared the leader at the yellow after a review, with Jeb Burton second and Love third.
Hill started second and won stage two but spent most of the final stage pushing his teammate Love. Hill’s win is also his first career top 10 at Talladega.
“I thought we were done, so I just started pushing the heck out of the No. 2 car,” Hill said. “Me and Jesse [Love], we worked together well all day for the most part. I was pushing him as hard as we could on the top.”
A replay of the finish at @TALLADEGA.@ConnorZilisch was evaluated and released from the infield care center following the race. pic.twitter.com/wbsDanVy2x
— NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) April 26, 2025
Burton, a two-time winner at Talladega, was side-by-side with Hill when the caution flag flew. Afterward, he shared his frustration and said he thought he should have won in an emotional post-race interview.
“We did everything we could today,” Burton told The CW. “I feel like when the caution flew I was ahead of (Hill). Last week at Rockingham, I got pretty screwed on a yellow that put me back a row, and today I lost the race by a timing line. I don’t see him ahead of me in any of these.”
After arguing his case, Burton was asked if he could see through the loss and find positives in a runner-up finish. The driver for Jordan Anderson Racing got choked up.
“We don’t have a lot of chances to win,” Burton said. “That’s what’s frustrating. That’s it.”
Burton later told Frontstretch’s Dalton Hopkins he would look to protest the result with NASCAR unless he was shown clear evidence Hill was the winner.
Behind the top three, Justin Allgaier took fourth place, while Matt DiBenedetto recorded his best career Xfinity Series finish in fifth.
Anthony Alfredo recorded his best run of the season in sixth. Blaine Perkins finished a career-high seventh while Harrison Burton, Sheldon Creed and Daniel Dye rounded out the top 10.
Richard Childress Racing controlled the race from the outset, with polesitter Love fending off teammate Hill for the stage one win. Creed, Christian Eckes and Ryan Sieg made up the rest of the top five in the stage.
The opening two stages proved to be the calm before the storm, with Parker Retlzaff being the only car that went behind the wall due to a brake issue. A caution free stage two ended with Hill picking up a stage win. Love, Aric Almirola, Nick Sanchez and Sammy Smith captured stage points as top-five finishers.
The final stage saw the field jumbled up by green flag pit stops, with RCR starting the cycle with 45 laps to go. Toyotas from Joe Gibbs Racing pitted five laps later and cycled into the lead with Almirola and Brandon Jones controlling the pack.
The first caution for cause came with 35 laps to go when Jeb Burton made contact with Smith and sent him spinning into the path of Greg Van Alst. Sieg tried to avoid the wreck but destroyed the front end of his car when he ran into the muddy infield grass.
Jones restarted with 28 to go but soon was shuffled back in the pack while Zilisch, Hill, Love and Jeb Burton controlled the field.
With 13 laps to go, Jones and Jeffrey Earnhardt were collected in a wreck on the backstretch that began when Almirola mistimed a move to clear Katherine Legge in the top lane. The incident ruined what had been a respectable run for Legge, running comfortably inside the top 20 at the time of the incident.
After the restart, Zilisch controlled the field over the final seven green flag laps. His best challenge came during the white flag when Jeb Burton took momentum from the top lane to move alongside Zilisch on the bottom. Momentum from Love and Hill pushed Zilisch to the lead before sending him spinning, forcing the video review.
After hard contact with the inside wall, Zilisch managed to climb out of his car shaken and was later released after a trip to the infield care center. The rookie finished 27th.
Grateful to walk away from that feeling okay. Thank you for the safe and fast car @JRMotorsports
— Connor Zilisch (@ConnorZilisch) April 26, 2025
Jeremy Clements. who finished 26th, earned the Xfinity Fastest Lap bonus point with a time of 49.64 seconds.
Next up, the Xfinity Series goes to Texas Motor Speedway on Saturday, May 3 for the Andy’s Frozen Custard 300. TV Coverage on The CW is set to begin at 2 p.m. ET.
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.