Austin Hill now 2/3 in ’23 with Vegas win

Austin Hill could not have asked for a better start to the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series season. Two weeks after winning the opener in Daytona, he passed pole sitter Chandler Smith on the penultimate lap to win the Alsco Uniforms 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Smith had dominated the race from the pole, winning the first stage and leading 118 of 200 laps. However, he found understeer start to affect his car in the closing laps which allowed Hill to close in before making his move. Hill scored his fourth career Xfinity win and first in a “non-superspeedway” environment; while his victory at Atlanta in 2022 came on a 1.5-mile course like Las Vegas, it now behaves like a plate track akin to Daytona.

He is also the first driver to win two of the first three races of an Xfinity season since Kyle Busch in 2016, though Busch was a Cup Series regular at the time (and still is). The most recent person to achieve the feat while not being known as a Cup contender was Todd Bodine in 2001, while Chad Little in 1995 was the last instance from a driver who did not race weekly in NASCAR’s highest level.

“When the #16 (Smith) got by me, I got really, really loose off of (turn) three,” said Hill. “Almost wrecked it, saved it. The #16 got really far out. I just knew I had to not abuse the tyres and try to methodically just work my way through traffic. The track was really tough today. Had a really thin line between three and four. If you missed it by, it seemed like a half of an inch, you paid for it through the whole lap.”

Despite “retiring” from the Xfinity Series in 2021 upon crossing 100 victories in the division, Busch finished fourth in his return, ruining his hopes of sweeping the weekend after claiming the Craftsman Truck Series race on Friday. Busch’s entry with Kaulig Racing was his first Xfinity start in a Chevrolet since 2007; he currently races for Hill’s team Richard Childress Racing in the Cup Series.

The race featured three cautions, all for single-car spins: Parker Kligerman just three laps in, Josh Berry on lap 75, and Rajah Caruth on lap 90 to end Stage #2 under yellow. The previous Xfinity race at Las Vegas, the 2022 fall event, was also relatively clean with just one race-related caution for a spin. Joey Gase was the lone retirement after his fuel pump cable broke in two.

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	9	21	Austin Hill	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
2	2	7	Justin Allgaier	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
3	1	16	Chandler Smith	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
4	11	10	Kyle Busch*	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
5	5	8	Josh Berry	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
6	7	20	John Hunter Nemechek	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	200	Running
7	13	1	Sam Mayer	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
8	10	98	Riley Herbst	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	200	Running
9	12	2	Sheldon Creed	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
10	8	11	Daniel Hemric	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
11	6	48	Parker Kligerman	Big Machine Racing Team	Chevrolet	200	Running
12	3	00	Cole Custer	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	200	Running
13	15	24	Tyler Reddick*	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	199	Running
14	24	27	Jeb Burton	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	199	Running
15	17	19	Joe Graf Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	199	Running
16	26	02	Kyle Weatherman	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	199	Running
17	14	18	Sammy Smith	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	199	Running
18	32	28	Alex Labbé	RSS Racing	Ford	199	Running
19	23	78	Anthony Alfredo	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	198	Running
20	22	38	Kyle Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	198	Running
21	19	9	Brandon Jones	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	198	Running
22	4	25	Brett Moffitt	AM Racing	Ford	198	Running
23	21	26	Kaz Grala	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	198	Running
24	18	39	Ryan Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	197	Running
25	25	51	Jeremy Clements	Jeremy Clements Racing	Chevrolet	197	Running
26	16	45	Rajah Caruth*	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	197	Running
27	36	43	Ryan Ellis	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	197	Running
28	29	4	Bayley Currey	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	197	Running
29	35	44	Jeffrey Earnhardt	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	197	Running
30	27	92	Josh Williams	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	197	Running
31	31	91	Josh Bilicki	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	196	Running
32	34	08	Gray Gaulding	SS-Green Light Racing	Ford	196	Running
33	33	6	Brennan Poole	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	196	Running
34	38	53	Patrick Emerling	Emerling-Gase Motorsports	Chevrolet	194	Running
35	30	07	Blaine Perkins	SS-Green Light Racing	Chevrolet	192	Running
36	28	99	Garrett Smithley	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	187	Running
37	20	31	Parker Retzlaff	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	186	Running
38	37	35	Joey Gase	Emerling-Gase Motorsports	Toyota	156	Fuel Pump
DNQ		66	Mason Maggio*	MBM Motorsports	Ford
DNQ		74	Ryan Vargas	CHK Racing	Chevrolet

Italics – Competing for Rookie of the Year
* – Ineligible for points