TALLADEGA, Ala. – Dance partners must be in lockstep with every movement, in sync for Saturday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Talladega Superspeedway (4 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). For Richard Childress Racing teammates Austin Hill and Jesse Love to accomplish that in the draft, they needed to settle their differences from last weekend at Kansas Speedway.
During Stage 1 of last Saturday’s race at Kansas, Love pinched the No. 21 RCR Chevrolet in Turn 4, causing Hill to whip loose and spin. Subsequent contact from William Sawalich ended Hill’s just 37 circuits into the 200-lap race.
Initially, Love considered the incident just “racing really hard,” but after meeting with his teammate during the week, Love found a new perspective on the moment.
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“The week went really great,” Love said during a Friday media availability at Talladega. “I actually learned a lot talking to him. I kind of gained a whole new respect for Austin. He really sat down and explained some things to me that I really listened to, and quite honestly, I needed to come out on the better end of this and learn from it. I made a mistake with how I reacted to us racing, and I could have done one of two things, right? Either do nothing about it and let it fester, or take ownership of it. Obviously, I have to make it right by him, but most importantly, learn from him, learn from the people around me and be better because of it.”
“Dumbfounded” by the incident exiting the Kansas infield care center, Hill stressed the importance of putting aside differences while working in the same shop, no matter which track was next on the circuit.
“We could have been going to Texas next week instead of it being Talladega, and we definitely needed to work it out and have a conversation just to see where his mindset was, where my mindset was and just kind of understand each other where we were at on things,” Hill explained. “I’m not gonna sit here and beat a dead horse. It was a positive conversation.”
The two drivers have proven to be the best on superspeedways in recent years. Hill is the all-time wins leader on drafting tracks in the O’Reilly Series (11) while Love owns victories at both Daytona International Speedway and Talladega.
Even with Love and Hill running well together in the draft, Hill added that he’s felt he can win on his own, whether Love is in the picture as a drafting partner or not.
“I think we definitely need each other, but without sounding too arrogant, there’s been a lot of races that I’ve been able to win here or at Daytona, and feel like I didn’t have any help, maybe because Jesse had damage, or he was wrecked out, or whatever, and I had to go do it on my own,” Hill said. “It does make it a lot easier, though, when you have the 2 car around you just because he has a lot of speed in his car and I have a lot of speed in my 21 car. Hopefully, him and I can be around each other all day, work together, and then last lap, we just both go for it and see who gets it done.”
Kansas was a learning moment for two of the O’Reilly Series’ most assertive competitors, and with points at a premium in The Chase format, racing well together is vital for both in their respective championship pursuits.
“Honestly, I learned a lot from me and Austin’s conversation,” Love said. “But I don’t think that I can use the cop out of ‘we were just racing hard.’ There was a mistake and a mindset on my part that was wrong, and that’s what I learned from it.”
“To me, actions speak louder than the words,” Hill said. “The words that were said were correct and we had an awesome conversation. Now, we just got to go do it on the race track and show everyone that we can be good teammates with each other.”
