Column: Georgia Native Austin Hill’s The One To Beat During NASCAR Xfinity Race At Atlanta
Column By: HOLLY CAIN / NASCAR – HAMPTON, GA – The NASCAR Xfinity Series is the second half of an exciting racing doubleheader on Saturday with the Bennett Transportation & Logistics 250 (5 p.m. ET on The CW, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at the lightning-fast Atlanta Motor Speedway 1.5-miler.
Austin Hill, who was trying to win an incredible fourth straight February Xfinity Series race last week in the Daytona season-opener, swept the stage wins and led a race best 56 laps only to retire early with engine problems on his No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. His RCR teammate Jesse Love ended up winning the race.
Hill gets another shot at track domination this weekend at Atlanta where the Georgia native is going for his fifth win in the last six races. He swept both race victories last season. In a sort of ironic inversion to last weekend at Daytona, Hill led only the final two overtime laps in last February’s race win at Atlanta while his teammate Love led a dominating 157 of the 169 laps and finished 12th.
With its recent reconfiguration, Atlanta certainly presents itself as another “superspeedway” only 1-mile shorter than Daytona. Judging by the racing last weekend, expect a highly-competitive look again at Atlanta.
Eleven drivers led laps at Daytona from veteran championship favorites such as Hill, Justin Allgaier and Sheldon Creed to talented young drivers such as Love and highly-touted rookie Connor Zilisch, who joins former NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series standouts Christian Eckes, Nick Sanchez and Taylor Gray among the new mix of promising young stars. Harrison Burton, who returns to the NASCAR Xfinity Series after three years in the NASCAR Cup Series ranks is also expected to consistently run up front and challenge for trophies.
Creed takes a nine-point advantage over Love atop the championship standings heading to Atlanta, where Allgaier (2021) and Hill (2022, 2023, 2024) are the only fulltime series drivers with victories.
Qualifying is set for 5 p.m. Friday and available on the CW App. Sam Mayer won pole position in 2024.
CRAFTSMAN Truck Series to kick off Atlanta’s Saturday doubleheader
The NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series follows up its dramatic Daytona season-opener in the first half of Saturday’s NASCAR double-header at Atlanta Motor Speedway with the Fr8 Racing 208 (1:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Championship favorite Corey Heim was declared the winner of the Daytona opener after Parker Kligerman’s team was disqualified after post-race inspection. The turn of events earned Heim his first-ever visit to Daytona’s Victory Lane and gives him a slim 3-point advantage over 2024 series champion and Daytona third-place finisher Ty Majeski entering the Atlanta race.
The Daytona top-10 may be a good indicator of what to expect this season in terms of competitive highlights with perennial title-favorite Grant Enfinger (fourth) and a handful of talented full-timers joining the grid from Chandler Smith (sixth), who led a race best 34 laps, to former NASCAR Xfinity Series champion Daniel Hemric (seventh) and highly-touted rookie William Sawalich (ninth).
Frankie Muniz, the television and movie star, eager to cement a new career in fulltime NASCAR competition, finished a career best 10th-place at Daytona. Two-time series champion Ben Rhodes led 22 laps but finished 20th while young talents such as Rajah Caruth and Tyler Ankrum were collected in crashes.
Among the fulltime drivers, there are three former Atlanta race winners entered this weekend, including Heim, who hoisted the trophy in 2022, Enfinger, who won in 2020 and Matt Crafton, the 2015 winner.
Kyle Busch is the seven-time and defending race winner and will be competing Saturday in the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet.
Qualifying is set for 3 p.m. ET on Friday (FS1). The polesitter has won five times – the most of any position on the grid; the last time was in 2017 with driver Christopher Bell.
