XFINITY: Hill Outduels Allgaier, Almirola to Take Another Atlanta Win
If you took a passing glance at the boxscore from Saturday's NASCAR Xfinity Series Bennett Transportation & Logistics 250 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, the story would seem quite simple. Austin Hill dominated by leading 146 of the 163 laps in the race on his path to his fifth career victory at his home track.
After a disappointing, and rare, mechanical failure ended Hill's bid for a win at Daytona International Speedway last weekend, Hill was elated to turn around his fortunes this weekend at Atlanta.
"To do what we did tonight was very special. I came off of Daytona -- I was pretty mad. Let's just leave it at that. I was very frustrated.," Hill explained. "Not mad at the team, because these things happen. Mechanical issues happen that type of stuff. But I was just very, very frustrated that we didn't lose that race on our own terms. Didn't lose the race because of something I did wrong. I hated it for the team, and I pumped everybody up going into Atlanta this week. I think myself included, the entire 21 team had a little extra oomph and that little extra pep in their step that we're going to go win this race."
However, with two laps remaining in the event, Aric Almirola emerged as a threat to thwart Hill's dominance at Atlanta as he took the race lead on the exit of Turn 4 with a thrilling move. But, Almirola was unable to get completely clear of Hill, and would make contact with third-place runner Parker Retzlaff, which would stall out Almirola's run.
A massive crash would erupt on the backstretch on the final lap of the race, involving Retzlaff, Ryan Sieg, Christian Eckes, and more. As a shower of sparks flew down the backstretch, NASCAR Race Control, like they did in last Sunday's Daytona 500, allowed the leaders to race back to the finish line.
A frantic finish in Atlanta! pic.twitter.com/tYg3r4B9NT
— NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) February 23, 2025
But there was no catching Hill, who marched to a victory margin of 0.216 seconds over Justin Allgaier, who worked his way to the inside of Almirola and doored him off of Turn 4 to take the runner-up spot.
Hill, 30, is now an 11-time NASCAR Xfinity Series race winner, and the Championship 4 contender from a season ago finds himself already locked into the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs after just two events. With the dominant night, Hill also became the all-time laps-led leader at superspeedways in the history of the NASCAR Xfinity Series. The win is also Hill's eighth Xfinity Series win on a drafting track, which is the most all-time.
"It means a lot," Hill said of the historical achievements. "I know [Dale Earnhardt] Jr. is probably going to be mad about it because he doesn't think Atlanta is a drafting track. But like I had told Jr. this before, don't hate the player, hate the game. Yeah, I have more opportunities at being able to run a superspeedway-style race, and everybody at RCR and ECR has been able to just give me a super-fast Bennett Chevrolet each and every week. It's just so much fun to strap into my No. 21 Bennett Chevrolet."
Allgaier, who is looking to win back-to-back NASCAR Xfinity Series championships this season, got his title defense back on the right track with a runner-up finish a week after starting things off with an 18th-place finish.
Sammy Smith would finish fourth behind Hill, Allgaier, and Almirola, and Rookie of the Year contender Nick Sanchez would come home in the fifth position.
Jeb Burton, Daniel Dye, Leland Honeyman, William Sawalich, and Harrison Burton rounded out the top-10 finishers in Saturday night's race.
For Harrison Burton, who dropped down to the NASCAR Xfinity Series this year after three seasons in the NASCAR Cup Series with the Wood Brothers Racing team, this is his second consecutive top-10 finish to kick off the 2025 season. Burton's AM Racing team, which used a slew of drivers last season including Hailie Deegan, recorded just two top-10 finishes through the duration of the 2024 season.
Jesse Love, who won the season-opening event at Daytona International Speedway, finished the night in 16th after starting from the pole position. Love led 13 laps in the race, and aside from his teammate Hill, no other drivers led more than a single lap throughout the entirety of the race.
The Richard Childress Racing duo led all but four laps in the race.
The Bennett Transportation & Logistics 250 featured 11 lead changes among six drivers, and the race was slowed eight times for cautions. Among the eight cautions, two of them were for multi-car accidents. The scariest crash of the evening came on Lap 143 when Sam Mayer was turned after contact with Nick Sanchez.
Mayer had saved his car on the apron but was clipped by Connor Zilisch, who was passing by to the inside, and that contact sent Mayer veering back across the race track, where he collected Anthony Alfredo in an extremely hard crash.
.@sam_mayer_ involved in a big wreck and we're back under caution in Atlanta. pic.twitter.com/FAEjJbyLmP
— The CW Sports (@TheCW_Sports) February 23, 2025
Thankfully, both drivers walked away unscathed.
Up next for the NASCAR Xfinity Series is a stop at Circuit of the Americas, a 20-turn picturesque road course in Austin, TX. The Focused Health 250 at COTA is set for Saturday, March 1 and that event will be televised on The CW. TV coverage of the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at COTA begins at 2:30 PM ET.
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Toby Christie is the Editor-in-Chief of Racing America. He has 15 years of experience as a motorsports journalist and has been with Racing America since 2023.