Austin Hill begins Xfinity rookie season with Daytona win amid scary Snider wreck

For the second night in a row, a driver has won in his first start for a new team after a wreck on the final lap at Daytona International Speedway. In the NASCAR Xfinity Series‘ case, the winner was new full-timer Austin Hill, giving him the early advantage in the Rookie of the Year battle, while the crash was a scary accident that sent Myatt Snider into the backstretch catchfence.

Hill, now an Xfinity regular for Richard Childress Racing, qualified second next to reigning champion and now-Kaulig Racing driver Daniel Hemric, and the two would trade the lead throughout the opening stage with Hemric winning out. The lone caution of the stage came when Drew Dollar made contact with Jeremy Clements on the backstretch, causing him to slam into the outside wall in a near-identical manner as his wreck in the ARCA Menards Series race earlier on Saturday. A.J. Allmendinger, Riley Herbst, Hill, Noah Gragson, Ty Gibbs, Justin Allgaier, Ryan Sieg, Brandon Brown, and Sam Mayer rounded out the top ten.

Dollar, who was making his Xfinity début, garnered criticism from fans who pointed out his aggressive driving style in ARCA has often resulted in incidents. Clements was especially vocal as he tweeted, “That’s what happens when you have guys that buy rides that shouldn’t be out there.”

Stage #2 ran completely green with Brown, the most recent superspeedway winner at Talladega in October, leading. Gragson claimed the lead on lap 49 with help from Sieg, holding the spot for ten laps before an attempted block on Hemric caused him to briefly lose control. Although Gragson saved the car, he lost the lead to Hemric who scored the stage victory. The rest of the top ten consisted of Sieg, Mayer, Allmendinger, Allgaier, Brown, Gibbs, Josh Berry, Brandon Jones, and Herbst.

Hemric continued to lead as the final stage commenced. Mayer lost his rear bumper on lap 84 to warrant a debris caution, which was followed by an even larger reason for a yellow flag when the ensuing restart on lap 91 saw C.J. McLaughlin get loose exiting turn four and spin into the pack. Ten drivers were ultimately involved with other victims including Hemric, Anthony Alfredo, Jesse Iwuji, Joey Gase, Shane Lee, Tommy Joe Martins, Brett Moffitt, Kyle Weatherman, and Josh Williams.

The final green flag waved on lap 98 with Allmendinger leading. The lead would be traded between Chevrolets as Allmendinger battled with Hill and Gragson for the top spot.

On the last lap, Allmendinger had the edge over Hill, who gradually closed the gap as they entered the backstretch. As Hill made his move for the lead, Snider was clipped in front of an oncoming rush of cars and sent into the air, slamming into the catchfence and ripping his engine out which was impacted by Matt Mills. Snider was able to walk away, though he reported a sore leg that he intends to evaluate as next week’s race at Fontana approaches.

Hill took the lead from Allmendinger when the caution came out, granting him the victory. Interestingly, Hill also won the 2019 Camping World Truck Series season opener in his first race for Hattori Racing Enterprises. He is the first rookie to win the first race of his ROTY campaign since Tyler Reddick in 2018.

“I have never really saw myself as a superspeedway racer, honestly,” commented Hill. His two previous Xfinity superspeedway starts at Daytona and Talladega in 2020 with HRE ended in wrecks, as did his last Truck start at Talladega in 2021. “But if you look back at results and look at kind of how I’ve ran the past couple years, the finishes and kind of where I’m running has shown that I kind of get around superspeedway racing decent.”

Richard Childress Racing also scored its first Daytona Xfinity win by a non-Cup Series driver; the team’s five prior victories at the superspeedway, including three in the fall race, have come with Cup regulars in Dale Earnhardt Jr. (twice), Clint Bowyer, Austin Dillon, and Tony Stewart. Childress expressed confidence in the team’s Xfinity programme, which is once again at two full-time cars for the first time since 2018, explaining that he believes Hill and team-mate Sheldon Creed are “going to make two great partners out there racing. I seen it tonight. Sheldon has got a lot of talent as well, and I think we’ll see a lot out of him.

“I’m excited. I’m as excited about the Xfinity as I was when we had Tyler come in and we won a championship with him and backed it up. It’s just cool to have these calibre of drivers in there.”

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	2	21	Austin Hill	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	120	Running
2	11	16	A.J. Allmendinger	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	120	Running
3	14	9	Noah Gragson	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	120	Running
4	10	98	Riley Herbst	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	120	Running
5	17	7	Justin Allgaier	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	120	Running
6	4	2	Sheldon Creed	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	120	Running
7	16	23	Anthony Alfredo	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	120	Running
8	19	39	Ryan Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	120	Running
9	31	36	Josh Bilicki	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	120	Running
10	13	68	Brandon Brown	Brandonbilt Motorsports	Chevrolet	120	Running
11	15	54	Ty Gibbs	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	120	Running
12	38	26	Ryan Truex	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	120	Running
13	21	66	J.J. Yeley	MBM Motorsports	Chevrolet	120	Running
14	6	10	Landon Cassill	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	120	Running
15	20	24	Jeffrey Earnhardt	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	120	Running
16	7	8	Josh Berry	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	120	Running
17	9	19	Brandon Jones	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	120	Running
18	8	6	Ryan Vargas	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	120	Running
19	27	27	Jeb Burton	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	120	Running
20	25	4	Bayley Currey	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	120	Running
21	36	28	Kyle Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	120	Running
22	33	31	Myatt Snider	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	119	Accident
23	3	48	Jade Buford	Big Machine Racing Team	Chevrolet	119	Accident
24	32	44	Tommy Joe Martins	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	119	Accident
25	18	5	Matt Mills	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	119	Accident
26	28	53	Joey Gase	Emerling-Gase Motorsports	Ford	119	Running
27	30	34	Jesse Iwuji	Jesse Iwuji Motorsports	Chevrolet	118	Running
28	1	11	Daniel Hemric	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	116	Running
29	29	07	Joe Graf Jr.	SS-Green Light Racing	Ford	110	Running
30	34	1	Sam Mayer	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	105	Running
31	24	78	Josh Williams	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	95	Accident
32	23	92	Kyle Weatherman	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	91	Accident
33	37	35	Shane Lee	Emerling-Gase Motorsports	Toyota	91	Accident
34	5	02	Brett Moffitt	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	91	Accident
35	26	38	C.J. McLaughlin	DGM Racing	Ford	91	Accident
36	12	18	Drew Dollar	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	14	Accident
37	35	51	Jeremy Clements	Jeremy Clements Racing	Chevrolet	13	Accident
38	22	45	Caesar Bacarella	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	11	Engine
DNQ		08	David Starr	SS-Green Light Racing	Ford
DNQ		90	Alex Labbé	DGM Racing	Chevrolet
DNQ		99	Stefan Parsons	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet
DNQ		91	Mason Massey	DGM Racing	Chevrolet
DNQ		33	Natalie Decker	Reaume Brothers Racing	Toyota
DNQ		47	Gray Gaulding	Mike Harmon Racing	Chevrolet
DNQ		77	Ronnie Bassett Jr.	Bassett Racing	Chevrolet
DNQ		52	Harrison Rhodes	Jimmy Means Racing	Chevrolet
DNQ		74	Tim Viens	Mike Harmon Racing	Chevrolet

Italics – Competing for Rookie of the Year