Austin Hill Passes Ross Chastain Late To Win Las Vegas; Mechanical Issues Shake Up Playoffs

Austin Hill Passes Ross Chastain Late To Win Las Vegas; Mechanical Issues Shake Up Playoffs

by September 14, 2019 0 comments

LAS VEGAS – Austin Hill will race in the Round of 6 of the NASCAR Playoffs after passing Ross Chastain late in Friday night’s Westgate 200 to win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Chastain dominated the race, leading 88 of the 134 laps, but as the lapped ticked away, he was challenged by Hattori Racing Enterprises’ Hill. With just 12 laps to go, Hill chased Chastain down and pulled off the race winning move. The victory marks Hill’s third of the season, and it advances him to the next round of the NASCAR Playoffs.

“It means the world to me,” said Hill, driver of the No. 16 Gunma Toyopet Toyota. “This is the hardest one I’ve had to win. We were going to stay out that last caution and we stayed out and everybody else pitted. We decided we needed to pit or we were going to be screwed. We came down pit road, restarted at the tailend of the longest line and it stayed green. I had to drive all the way through the field and this truck was unbelievable.”

Chastain finished in second, 2.116 seconds behind Hill. Christian Eckes finished third, followed by Sheldon Creed and Todd Gilliland. Rounding out the top-10 was Brennan Poole, NASCAR Playoff contender Brett Moffitt, Ben Rhodes, Harrsion Burton and Dylan Lupton.

Throughout the night, many of the championship contenders had a rough night in Las Veags.

Stewart Friesen finished down a cylinder in 19th.

All three of ThorSport Racing’s championship contenders had mechanical issues. Johnny Sauter finished 29th, Matt Crafton finished 30th and Grant Enfinger finished 31st.

Moffitt will compete in the Round of 6 as will Hill, Chastain, Friesen, Crafton and Tyler Ankrum who finished 11th on Friday night.

The Round of 6 will kick off at Talladega Superspeedway on Saturday, October 12. Live coverage of the Sugarlands Shine 250 will broadcast on FOX Sports 1 (FS1) and the Motor Racing Network (MRN) at 1:30 p.m. ET.\

Photo Credit: Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images

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