XFINITY: Austin Hill Powers Past Chandler Smith for Another Atlanta Win
Insanity has been said to be doing the same thing repeatedly, and expecting a different outcome. Well, at this point, we'd be insane to expect anyone other than Austin Hill to capture victory at Atlanta Motor Speedway in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. In Saturday's Focused Health 250, the driver of the No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet Camaro took his fourth Xfinity Series win at Atlanta Motor Speedway over the last three seasons.
While Hill is typically the dominant driver in events at superspeedways like Atlanta, Daytona, and Talladega, that wasn't the case Saturday at Atlanta, as he only led the race one time for a total of 12 laps. It didn't matter because after a shove from Corey Heim, Hill cleared Chandler Smith for the race lead on the final restart of the race, Hill took the lead and never looked back.
"Oh my god, it was just resilience with this whole Bennett No. 21 team," Hill said of the victory. "Like you said, our Bennett Chevrolet wasn't handling great all day. It wasn't as fast as Xfinity internet -- well, it had speed. I can't say that, it had plenty of speed but the handle on it was tough all day. We had to dig deep for that one."
Hill continued, "We're going to celebrate this one, because it didn't come easy."
After a wild closing few laps of the race, where drivers were jockeying for position, Parker Kligerman was able to work his way up to a runner-up finish in the No. 48 Big Machine Racing Chevrolet. AJ Allmendinger, who led a race-high 40 laps, but was shuffled from the lead with 31 laps remaining, rallied to finish third.
Hill, a Georgia native, continues to come up big at his hometown track, but his latest Atlanta win came at the expense of a fellow driver from The Peach State. Smith, who wanted the win so badly he could taste it, faded to a fouth-place finish.
While it was a heartbreaking near-miss at his hometrack, Smith couldn't help but be angered by fellow Toyota racer Corey Heim, who chose to push Hill in a Chevrolet rather than him on the final restart.
"I expected my Toyota teammate to come with me."
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) September 7, 2024
Chandler Smith wasn't happy with Corey Heim after the race. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/jLxIoC9GGg
"We're Toyota teammates, and I got clear out of the restart zone and could have went bottom and hung him up top to be the leader, the top lane. And I didn't," Smith stated in frustration. "I stayed up top with my Toyota teammate and ultimately gave up the lead doing that. Yeah, I expected my Toyota teammate to come with me, and that didn't happen. And it is what it is."
Smith wasn't the only driver surprised by Heim's late-race allegiance.
"Very surprised [Heim] pushed me there, and didn't go with a Toyota," Hill, the winner of the race said.
Between the NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, Smith has had several close calls at pulling into victory lane at the 1.54-mile track in Hampton, GA, but each time he has ended the race holding the short end of the stick.
"I feel like I've been robbed from three Atlanta wins now, unfortunately in my career here," Smith seethed. "I'm kind of speechless, honestly. There's a lot of different things that I could have done. I could have been more selfish, and when I got cleared, went to the bottom and covered that and controled the race for sure. But I was trying to be a good teammate, and it didn't pay off for me today, as usual."
While Smith was upset, Heim explained that had Smith made his move in a portion of the track that made more sense, he would have tucked in with him.
"Yeah, I mean at the end of the day, the move was going to be made on a straightaway not in the middle of the corner. So, if he wanted me to push him by, I mean, I feel like if he just dropped back and dropped to my bumper out of [Turn] 4 on the straightaway, you know and have ourselves both an opportunity to win the race, I would have gladly pushed him," Heim explained. "But he had no run or no momentum, so why go to the bottom at that point?"
Heim's choice to go for the win himself, instead of pushing Smith to the win, ultimately didn't pan out as he finished one position behind Smith anyway in fifth.
NASCAR Xfinity Series rookie of the year point leader Jesse Love finished the race in sixth, while Sammy Smith, Josh Williams, Brandon Jones, and Ryan Truex rounded out the top-10 finishers in the race.
The seventh-place finish for Sammy Smith coupled with a DNF for Ryan Sieg, who was swept up in a six-car melee in Turn 4 on Lap 145, resulted in the JR Motorsports driver boosting his Playoff hopes. Smith will exit Atlanta Motor Speedway with a 44-point advantage over Sieg for the final Playoff berth position with just two races remaining until the Playoffs begin in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.
Lawless Alan was a surprise near the front of the field for the majority of the race, and in the closing laps, the part-time driver of the No. 15 AM Racing Ford Mustang found himself inside the top-five. Unfortunately, he would get turned sideways, which would kick him out of the drafting line. Fortunately, he was able to save his car, and he salvaged a solid 13th-place run for AM Racing.
TOBY CHRISTIE