Austin Hill comes up clutch to claim win at Talladega

TALLADEGA, Ala. -- Once again, Richard Childress Racing's Austin Hill proved himself the driver to beat on NASCAR's big drafting-style tracks, as the veteran held off the field on a dramatic overtime restart with two laps remaining at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway to earn the victory in Saturday's United Rentals 250.

Hill's No. 21 RCR Chevrolet led a race-best 48 of the 100 laps to earn a season sweep at the 2.66-mile speedway, NASCAR's biggest track. The 31-year-old Georgia native claimed both stage wins and the .105-second victory over JR Motorsports Playoff driver Carson Kvapil. The victory now gives him 10 wins at drafting-style tracks. He already eclipsed the previous record set by NASCAR Hall of Famers Dale Earnhardt and Tony Stewart, who each had eight victories on that style of track.

Although Hill has been eliminated from contention for the driver's title, his win Saturday does guarantee his RCR team a car in the 2025 owner's championship.

"If you have any questions, and it's green-white-checkered, you probably just go to the bottom (of the track) because of how crazy was the second and third lane there at the end," an elated Hill said after climbing down from the hood of his Chevy, where he waved his hands and encouraged the huge crowd's loud reaction.

"Being able to race for Richard Childress is always special, and to be able to deliver wins like this," Hill continued. "As the Playoff started and us getting knocked out the way we did, (it) stung a lot, but once we knew we were still in it for the owner's championship, I decided I'd do it just like I would going for a driver's championship.

"To be able to lock ourselves in and go to Phoenix knowing we're going for an owner's championship and be able to try and deliver one to Richard Childress Racing means the world to me."

Kvapil's JR Motorsports teammate and fellow Playoff driver, Justin Allgaier, finished third. That result boosted the reigning champion's points total enough to clinch one of the four Championship-eligible entries for the Nov. 1 season finale at Phoenix.

Another JR Motorsports teammate, rookie Connor Zilisch, had a rough outing Saturday. His No. 88 JRM Chevy finished 23rd, three laps down after being collected in a late-race accident. But the good news for the series 10 race winner and regular-season champion was that his outing earned enough points for him to officially claim a championship bid. While it ended a series record streak of 18 top-five finishes for the young phenom, it was still good enough to allow him a shot at his first NASCAR title.

The final two championship positions will be decided next week at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, although the JR Motorsports team certainly showed the intensity and purpose it's carrying forward in hopes of deciding the championship completely among themselves.

Sammy Smith, driver of the No. 8 JRM Chevrolet, finished ninth, moving him from last place among the eight Playoff drivers entering Saturday's race to fifth. He's only 11 points behind Kvapil, who moved into that all-important fourth-place transfer spot.

Hill's RCR teammate, Jesse Love, who led 19 laps -- second only to Hill on Saturday -- finished 10th after a decision to give up track position to pit for fuel during the caution period leading into the overtime restart. He raced back through the field for that top-10 effort but had been running top three behind Hill and Allgaier. He goes to Martinsville third in the standings, a healthy 40 points above the Playoff cutoff line.

"Just a bit mundane," Love said of his result, conceding how difficult the call to get fuel was in the closing laps. "Nothing crazy good or bad, but obviously we'll never know if that was (the) right call to come down and take fuel, but I had to trust my gut, and I didn't know if I was going to make it or not.

"It was honestly kind of close. ... It does stink because I think we had as good a car as the 21 (Hill). I think he was a little bit more aggressive than I was, but we did what we needed to do and didn't beat ourselves today."

Overtime was necessitated when Smith -- running in the middle lane trying to make a late move for the win -- just nudged his No. 8 Chevrolet's right front bumper from the middle lane into the left rear of Aric Almirola's Toyota in the outside lane. The result was a five-car accident that eliminated the last week's race winner Almirola and brought out that final two-lap overtime session to decide the trophy.

On the other side of the afternoon, there was almost immediate trouble at the start of the race for a trio of Playoff contenders. Both Haas Factory Team cars driven by Sheldon Creed and Sam Mayer were eliminated from the race after suffering significant damage in that Lap 15 eight-car pileup. They finished 34th (Creed) and 38th (Mayer). Joe Gibbs Racing's Playoff driver Brandon Jones was also involved in the accident but was able to keep his No. 20 Toyota running, albeit several laps down. He finished 26th.

Jones now sits sixth in the standings, 20 points below the cutoff line heading into Martinsville. Mayer dropped from fourth place to seventh, 22 points behind Kvapil. It's the first time he's fallen below the elimination line this Playoff run. Creed is now 41 points below the transfer line in eighth place, needing a clutch victory at Martinsville to continue his Playoff hopes.

On the upside of Saturday's Talladega results, Kaulig Racing rookie Christian Eckes finished fourth, his sixth top-five result of the year. And veteran Caesar Bacarella's fifth-place run in the No. 5 Alpha Prime Racing Chevy was a career-best effort.

Blaine Perkins, Parker Retzlaff, Leland Honeyman, Smith and Love rounded out the top 10.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series moves to Martinsville (Va.) Speedway for next Saturday's all-important IAA and Ritchie Bros. 250 (7:30 p.m. ET, The CW Network, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Almirola is the defending race winner.

-By Holly Cain, special to Field Level Media