Column: Austin Hill Hopes To Rebound At Las Vegas Motor Speedway After Misfortune At Phoenix
Column By: HOLLY CAIN / NASCAR – LAS VEGAS, NV – A race-ending mistake last Saturday at Phoenix Raceway cost Austin Hill the NASCAR Xfinity Series lead.
Just 61 laps into the fourth event of the season, Hill bounced off the inside wall in Turn 3 and collected the cars of Sheldon Creed and Dean Thompson. Hill finished 37th and fell to fourth in the standings as Richard Childress Racing teammate Jesse Love took over the points lead with a ninth-place finish.
“I was right behind the No. 8 (Sammy Smith) and just messed up,” Hill said ruefully. “I misjudged the inside wall, and that may be the dumbest move I’ve had happen to me in racing…
“We’ll rebuild for Las Vegas and try to have a good outcome there.”
Hill will look to regain the form that earned a victory at Atlanta Motor Speedway and the series lead in Saturday’s The Liuna! at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (4:30 p.m. ET on CW, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Hill is the only former Las Vegas winner in the field for Saturday’s race, but he’ll have plenty of competition from perennial contender Justin Allgaier. The driver of the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet has more second-place finishes (4), top fives (11), stage wins (3) and laps led (330) than the rest of the field combined, despite being winless at the track.
Last week’s winner, Aric Almirola, will make his third start of the season in the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, seeking his first top-10 finish at LVMS in his seventh start there.
Grant Enfinger, Ty Majeski come to Vegas in tight Truck Series points battle
Former Las Vegas winner Grant Enfinger holds a one-point lead over reigning champion Ty Majeski in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series standings entering Friday night’s Ecosave 200 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (9 p.m. ET on FS1, NRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Driving a Ford for owner Mike Curb, Enfinger took the checkered flag in 2018, before Toyota ran off a string of seven straight victories at the 1.5-mile intermediate track. Kyle Busch and Rajah Caruth have won the two most recent races at LVMS in Chevrolets, both from the pole.
If Caruth can win on Friday in the No. 71 Spire Motorsports Silverado, he’ll be the first driver to go back-to-back at the track. Caruth currently is 30th in the series standings after crashing out at Daytona and Atlanta to start the season, and he’s happy to get back on the track after a two-week hiatus in the schedule.
“It’s great to go back to Las Vegas,” Caruth said. “It will be my first time on the grounds since the win. That night was obviously such a milestone for myself, and from a confidence standpoint, I know I can get the job done at that facility.
“Coming off a couple bad weeks, it sticks in your mind when you have multiple weekends between races. My motivation for the weekend is definitely at a heightened level since I know I run well at Vegas. But in terms of preparation, it’s just another race.”
ThorSport Racing’s Matt Crafton will make his 200th start in the series on a 1.5-mile intermediate track. Only one other active Truck Series driver—ThorSport teammate Ben Rhodes—has made 200 or more starts in the series at all tracks combined.
Rhodes will make his 213th start in the series on Friday.
