Despite the best efforts of the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series field, a familiar face headed back to victory lane at the World Center of Racing. Austin Hill won his fourth career race Saturday night (Feb. 14) from the pole at Daytona International Speedway, staying out front most of the race and besting all challengers on a late-race restart in the United Rentals 300.
All four of Hill’s Daytona victories have now come in the series-opening race. After winning three in a row (2022-24) Hill got back on track in 2026, leading 78 laps, the most of all drivers, and sweeping both stages to help owner Richard Childress get his fifth straight win to start the season at Daytona. RCR now has 11 wins at this track in this division, besting Dale Earnhardt, Inc. for the most in the series.
“Daytona’s been so good to me,” said Hill to CW Sports in victory lane. “I love this place and it’s always fun to win.”
On the final restart of the race, Hill held off strong charges from Brennan Poole and series veteran Justin Allgaier. Allgaier wound up second, followed by Ryan Sieg, Jordan Anderson and Sammy Smith to round out the top five.
The race before the final restart was far from clean as several contenders were wiped out in crashes throughout the race. A stack up on the start of the race took out Mason Maggio and damaged a few other cars, setting the tone for the night. Over three-quarters of the field was swept up in the carnage, involved in at least one wreck while 14 drivers failed to finish the race.
Among the bigger wrecks of the day was Smith, who spun off the nose of Sam Mayer to end stage one under caution. The incident ended the days of Gio Ruggiero, the winner of the ARCA race earlier in the day, and Nick Sanchez, who was making his AM Racing debut in the No. 25 Ford.
The race then calmed a bit until right after the only green-flag pit cycle of the race, midway through the final stage. As the field settled out from those stops, Sieg and Jeb Burton made contact, ending the night for Mayer, Brandon Jones, Jeremy Clements and Natalie Decker, who came into the wreck late.
“That really sucked,” Decker said of the incident. “It was the 41 that just, randomly it felt like, he rolled back up the track and at that point, I was committed [high] and there was nowhere I could go.”
“The hood was up, so I didn’t exactly know which direction I was facing,” Mayer said from his side of things. “And my steering was gone. I didn’t have a tire at that point. So, I couldn’t turn and I was trying to brake up the hill. I just couldn’t. And then, I hit the transition and it just wouldn’t let me slow down.”
Shortly thereafter, another major crash occurred when Corey Day got into the back of William Sawalich in turn 3. They took out themselves out along with Taylor Gray and the Burton brothers (Harrison and Jeb).
The race ended in regulation on a two-lap dash with Hill seemingly in complete control of the race. His teammate Jesse Love, the only other driver who seemed able to keep up, could never got in position to challenge on the restart. After getting stuck in the wrong line, stunting his momentum, he never recovered and slumped to ninth.
“He plays all the games correctly, and it’s really hard to take advantage of him,” Love said of Hill’s drafting track prowess. “He’s really patient and he’s really aggressive when he needs to be and all his moves seem to work.”
Behind the top five were some notable underdog performances: Ryan Ellis was a career-best sixth and Blaine Perkins was eighth after running in the top five much of the final stage. Anthony Alfredo, who failed to qualify his Viking Motorsports entry earlier in the day, wound up 11th after a last-minute switch into the Alpha Prime No. 4.
Overall, there were 15 lead changes during the race among eight drivers. Seven cautions were scattered throughout with five of them caused by on-track incidents.
O’Reilly Daytona Results
Next week, the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series will get right back to a drafting track as they head up to EchoPark Speedway in Atlanta for the second race of the season. This race is scheduled for next Saturday, Feb. 21 at 5 p.m. ET with TV coverage once again provided by your local CW affiliate.
Michael Bellifemini joined Frontstretch in February 2026 as a contributor. Bellifemini was born and raised in New Jersey and graduated from Seton Hall University. He called Seton Hall men's and women's basketball games for their college radio station, 89.5 FM WSOU, and continues to broadcast in the area. Outside of covering NASCAR, Bellifemini is also an avid baseball, football, basketball, and hockey fan and enjoys watching different sports leagues on a daily basis.
Has Toyota and Ford been ruled (aero and horsepower rules) out of the O’Reilly Series. Nothing but chevrolets on the leader board !
20 drivers wreck and only Natalie Decker who did not cause any wrecks should be banned? Justin Alghier wrecks half the 500 field and Cleetus spins out on lap 6 crickets! Natalie has 5th place finishes at Daytona in both Arca and trucks and has led laps in Xfinity. CW’s misogynists attacking Decker was disgusting. Women have enough trouble getting rides in nascar without that.
I would have dumped him with that super aggressive double block move at the end of the backstraight on the final lap. One block I lift a bit but that weaving around should get you spun and the heck with the consequences to myself.