Austin Hill defended his NASCAR Xfinity Series victory at Daytona Int’l Speedway. (Photo by David Moulthrop)
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – After a violent last-lap crash and a long wait near the pit lane entrance, it was Austin Hill who clinched victory in Saturday’s opener of the NASCAR Xfinity Series at Daytona Int’l Speedway.
Hill was declared the winner after NASCAR took about five minutes to review footage of the final lap. It saw Hill, Justin Allgaier and John Hunter Nemechek all battling for the lead when Sam Mayer collapsed behind them, toppling over on his roof.
Mayer’s incident was triggered after contact with Allgaier as they exited Turn 2.
“When I chose the outside line (before the last green flag), I felt like the inside line wasn’t that great,” Hill said on the front stretch after the race. “When I saw (Mayer) and (Allgaier) coming together, I said, ‘You can’t lift. It’s the last lap.” When the warning light came on, I thought I had it, but it was so close.”
The win is the third in Hill’s Xfinity Series career.
All three have come on a superspeedway style track – two at Daytona and one at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
The Richard Childress Racing driver and the defending champion took the win after technically starting from pole. But during the pre-race pace laps, Hill had to fix a radio problem in the pits and restarted at the back. Hill marched through the field and took the lead for the first time on lap 27. He ended up leading by a peak of 39 laps.
Behind Hill, Nemechek was second and Allgaier third. Parker Retzlaff and Myatt Snider completed the top five.
Allgaier was in the lead at the white flag, but was too far ahead of the field. This allowed Mayer to attack him. As they exited Turn 2, Allgaier tried to block him and pinned him against the wall, triggering the wreck.
“It’s so hard to want to support yourself when you’re the leader,” Allgaier said. “I knew if I lifted, I would be swallowed. I just didn’t think it was the right choice.”
Nemechek scored second place in his first start as a full-time driver for Joe Gibbs Racing.
“I mean, either way, it’s a good run, isn’t it?” said Nemechek. “To come out of Daytona with a top 3, with how many cars usually crash here and the carnage that’s going on, I feel really good coming home with a clean car.”
The end result came as a bit of a surprise after JR Motorsports led 67 of 125 laps and held the four places behind Hill for most of the final heat of the race. But in the final laps, Brandon Jones was hooked from behind by teammate Josh Berry, causing Jones to slide in the backstretch grass.
During the resulting caution, Berry ran out of gas. Then last lap chaos removed Mayer and Allgaier from the equation.
Austin Hill celebrates at Daytona Int’l Speedway. (Photo by David Moulthrop)
FIRST STAGE RECAP
After Hill’s problems before the green flag, Cole Custer took over the front row and led the first lap. Allgaier would quickly take the point and lead John Hunter Nemechek by Lap 2. By lap 4, part of the leading group was already three wide.
With his radio problems resolved, Hill was in 13th place by Lap 5. The first warning of the night came when Bayley Currey’s No. 4 car began smoking and spilled liquids onto the track. At this point, Hill was eighth. The race turned green again on lap 11 as Nemechek took the lead and Hill moved up to third place.
The first wreck happened on Lap 20 when the No. 07 Blaine Perkins and No. 11 Daniel Hemric came together at Turn 4. Perkins slid nose-first into the inside wall while Hemric’s right front fender was ripped off. Both drivers retired from the race.
Perkins was initially hooked by Mayer on the left back.
A bump from behind makes for a tough day for Blaine Perkins & Daniel Hemric who are now our competitors in the race. #XfinitySeries pic.twitter.com/hxfLtHvVCu
— Xfinity Racing (@XfinityRacing) February 18, 2023
Under the caution, race director Allgaier decided to stay away from the pits. The race continued with five laps remaining in the stage.
A lap later, Hill officially returned to his original grid spot.
On the last lap of the stage, Hill narrowly avoided a wreck as he attempted to lock-up Allgaier and Chandler Smith at Turn 4 and held on to beating them for the stage win. In the pits, Allgaier was the first off-pit lane via Smith and Hill. Meanwhile, Sheldon Creed and Parker Kligerman stayed out.
SECOND STAGE RECAP
On lap 40 there was another incident involving several cars.
As Sheldon Creed ran forward through the tri-oval, he received a bad jab from Parker Kligerman. This caused Creed to fly left, bouncing him off teammate Hill, and then his No. 2 Chevy nose first sent into the outer wall.
Behind him, Allgaier tried to check and spun. Stefan Parson was also collected.
Creed’s team attempted repairs, but Creed was ultimately eliminated.
Allgaier’s team had to make minor bodywork repairs to his #7 Chevy and on lap 54 he was battling Hill and Mayer for the lead. With two laps to go, all four JR Motorsports cars were on the outside lane.
Allgaier held the lead with one lap to go and he would hold to win the sage over Mayer. Shortly after the field crossed the finish line, JGR’s Sammy Smith spun on contact. Allgaier cautiously led Mayer, Jones and Berry out of the pit lane. The race continued with 54 laps remaining.
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