Austin Hill Goes Back-To-Back-To-Back At Atlanta In NASCAR Xfinity Series
by Hunter Thomas February 22, 2025 1 commentHAMPTON, Ga. – Austin Hill dominated the Bennett Transportation & Logistics 250 to win his third consecutive NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Hill has been so strong at the newly configured Atlanta Motor Speedway that the Georgia native has won all the races, except for one, which means he’s visited Victory Lane in five of the last six races at the track. On Saturday, it was the same story as the Richard Childress Racing driver led all but 18 laps, swept all the stages and prevailed in a three-lap shootout.
“This Bennett Chevrolet was as fast as Xfinity Mobile,” Hill said. “It’s the Bennett 250. We have everyone here from Bennett. There’s over 500-plus people here. Men, women, you name it. To be able to do this is something special. We were able to do it last year with the gold car for the 50th anniversary, and they sponsored the qualifying, and it looks like to me that they need to sponsor more NASCAR Xfinity races because this has been some good omen for us. I’m so excited.”
Justin Allgaier rubbed fenders with Aric Almirola coming to the line to secure a second-place finish. The last four races weren’t kind to Allgaier, and in fact, Saturday’s effort marks his first top-five at Atlanta Motor Speedway since he won back in 2021 prior to the reconfiguration.
Almirola held on to finish third. While he has competed in the NASCAR Cup Series at the reconfigured track, his start on Saturday marked his first in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. On the final lap, Almirola was in position, but Hill was just too fast, and Allgaier snuck by in the closing feet.
“I thought we were going to win the chess game,” Almirola said. “He got out front, and I felt like I had the help I needed from Parker (Retzlaff) and was going to be in a good spot. I got where I needed to – I got the position, but when I got to the inside, the 7 (Justin Allgaier) and our lane didn’t have the energy to help me race side-by-side and kind of drag race. He got back out front and I just tried really hard to slow down to the 7 but he didn’t have any energy behind him, and I just over-slowed my race car and let the 7 beat me to the line, which is probably dumb, but it was the right thing that I needed to do to try and generate one last run to try and beat the 21 (Austin Hill). I guess at that point, I should have just taken second.”
Sammy Smith and Nick Sanchez finished fourth and fifth respectively. Rounding out the top-10 was Jeb Burton, Daniel Dye, Leland Honeyman, William Sawalich and Harrison Burton.
There were 12 lead changes among seven drivers. Hill led a race high of 146 laps.
The caution flew on eight occasions for 49 laps.
On Lap 119, South Carolina’s Jeremy Clements went spinning out of Turn 2 and into Taylor Gray and Connor Zilisch. Clements continued and finished 11th.
On Lap 143, Nick Sanchez slid up the track and into Sam Mayer in-between Turns 3 and 4. Mayer was hit hard by Zilisch, and then he slammed into the wall and was pounded by Anthony Alfredo.
The NASCAR Xfinity Series will visit Circuit of the Americas on Saturday, March 1 for the Focused Health 250. Live coverage will broadcast on the CW at 2:30 p.m. ET.
Photo Credit: Mitchell White/TheFourthTurn.com
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