Austin Hill held off a late-race push from Justin Allgaier to reach victory lane at Daytona International Speedway. Hill edged out the former O’Reilly Auto Parts Series champion by just 0.081 seconds.
Hill had a near-perfect Daytona weekend by sweeping all stages after a pole start. The race behind him was filled with multiple wrecks that took out over a dozen drivers.
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Hill, however, kept it clean and led 78 of the 120 laps. It wasn’t all smooth sailing, as the No.21 team decided to pit for all four tires on lap 93 and went outside the top-10. Nonetheless, the 31-year-old rallied to the front soon enough.
Here’s a clip of the race finish shared by CW Sports.
The result earned Austin Hill a maximum points haul of 75. Justin Allgaier finished second while Ryan Sieg rounded out the podium places. 2025 champion and RCR teammate Jesse Love, finished ninth after leading 27 laps. He was running in sixth when the final lap started, but was overcome by Ryan Ellis, Carson Kvapil, and Blaine Perkins.
Austin Hill recaps intense final moments after Daytona win
Austin Hill was overjoyed to celebrate his 15th win and his 11th at a superspeedway track. The result marks a five-year long winning streak for Richard Childress Racing at Daytona, as Jesse Love won the event last year.
Speaking to CW Sports, Hill went over his final-lap dash and said,
“I wanted to work with my teammate there at the end, Jesse. But I just knew that the bottom was going to surge or I felt like it was. The top lane always gets discombobulated and they move around a lot and everyone’s trying to screw everybody over.”
“Thought I messed up on the white flag lap off of two. I got way out and luckily I was able to make the block on the seven. Then I almost missed the block on whoever the blue car was….and right when I got down he gave me a shot. I had to save the car and then after that it was just hammered down and just hoping that they wouldn’t get back to me. So Daytona has been so good to me. I love this place and it’s always fun to win and always fun to be here in victory lane,” he added.
Austin Hill’s victory drew praise from JR Motorsports team owner, Dale Earnhardt Jr. He noted that Richard Childress Racing gave Hill one of the fastest cars in the field.
The stage is set for the RCR pair to overcome the JRM stable of drivers, as both teams filled out eight of the top-10 spots. Earnhardt’s latest signing, Rajah Caruth, has shown promise with a tenth-place finish, while Sammy Smith continues to impress with his fifth-place result.
Edited by Vignesh Kanna
