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| Race winner Austin Hill |
Saturday at Atlanta Motor Speedway, the Richard Childress Racing driver once again proved why he's one of the best on drafting tracks.
Austin Hill held off a charging Chandler Smith and Corey Heim to earn his ninth career win as a NASCAR Xfinity Series driver. Seven of his nine victories have come on drafting tracks including four at Atlanta.
"We had to dig deep for that one," said Hill, a Georgia native ."The No. 81 [Smith] got into (Turn) 3 and had me jacked up. He's doing what he has to do to try and win. Very surprised that the No. 26 [Heim] pushed me there and didn't go with a Toyota.
"I thought that I messed up into (Turns) 1 and 2, and I hate it that he got into the fence. I wasn't trying to run him into the fence. I was just trying to get him aero loose."
Hill ended up having two Toyota drivers directly behind him in the run to the finish. Smith did get alongside, but his fellow Toyota driver Corey Heim didn't help. He instead chose to push Hill, moving into second position with a shot at his first-ever Xfinity win.
In Turn 1 on the final lap, Heim went to the outside of Hill but ended up tagging the outside wall, ending his chances of winning. Parker Kligerman and A.J. Allmendinger then rocketed past, but they were unable to run down Hill before the checkered flag. Kligerman crossed the finish line second and Allmendinger third. Smith finished a disappointed fourth and Heim fifth.
Smith wasn't very pleased by his teammate's decision to not be a team player at the very end. "Yeah (I'm surprised), we're Toyota teammates," he told NBC Sports. "I got clear out of the restart zone and could have went bottom and hung up top to be the leader. I didn't. I stayed up top with my Toyota teammate. Ultimately gave up the lead doing that." Smith was referring to the 14-to-go restart when he was in control of the race, but stayed in line while Hill passed him on the inside. That ended up being the winning move.
"I expected my Toyota teammate to come with me and that didn't happen. It is what it is, but we had a really fast No. 81 Supra all day. I feel like I've been robbed of three Atlanta wins now unfortunately in my career here. I'm kind of speechless, honestly. There's a lot of different things I could have done. I could have been more selfish and when I got clear, went to the bottom to cover that and just control the race for sure, but I was trying to be a good teammate, and it didn't pay off for me today, as usual."
Naturally, Heim saw things differently, questioning the timing of Smith's move. "At the end of the day, the move was going to be made on a straightaway, not in the middle of the corner. So, if he wanted me to push him by, I feel like if he had just dropped back to my bumper out of (Turn) 4 on the straightaway, and had ourselves, both an opportunity to win the race, I would have gladly pushed him. He had no run or no momentum so why go to the bottom of that point? I came here to win the race.
"For a team like Sam Hunt Racing to have an opportunity at their first win -- I wanted to give them that opportunity. There's no point going to the bottom in the middle of the corner and trying to scoot by the leader. Best car all day was the No. 21 [Hill]. Just wasn't in my best interest. Wasn't in his best interest, either. I'm not sure why he decided to go down there."
Heim added that the only thing to discuss in the team meeting next week will be about when to make the move. This incident is reminiscent of what took place at the end of the NASCAR Cup race at Daytona when Parker Retzlaff pushed the Ford of Harrison Burton around fellow Chevrolet driver Kyle Busch, costing his manufacturer the race win. Busch later said Retzlaff owed him nothing in the run to the checkered flag.
- Nick DeGroot
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