Austin Hill appeared to be well on his way to winning Saturday’s NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series race at his home track of Atlanta Motor Speedway — but then the caution flag flew.
The Hattori Racing driver was in command of the race in the closing laps, taking over the lead on Lap 99 and holding it convincingly, but a yellow flag for Chase Elliott’s spin on Lap 127 of the scheduled 130-lap event pushed the race into overtime. After a final round of pit stops, Hill reassumed the lead for a two-lap sprint to the checkered flag, but it was Grant Enfinger’s No. 98 Ford that was able to push past Hill’s No. 16 Hattori Racing Toyota for the race win.
RELATED: Race results
Hill had to settle for second, holding off Kyle Busch Motorsports rookie Christian Eckes after leading 36 of the 136 total circuits.
“All in all, that white-flag lap going alongside the 98, I got on the splitter a little bit going into (Turn) 1,” Hill said during his post-race media availability. “Ultimately, it just got tight and when it did, he (Enfinger) was able to clear me off of (Turn) 2. It was kind of over from there.”
During that last round of pit stops after Elliott’s spin, Hill went back and forth with his team about adjusting the truck differently for a short run, noting it took his truck five to eight laps to gain momentum.
“We felt like we had a dominant truck, we just needed clean air,” Hill said. “I think it showed there during that long run how good we were.”
After heartbreak on his Peach State home turf, Hill will have his next shot to earn his fifth career victory at Homestead-Miami Speedway on June 13 (7:30 p.m. on FS1). The Florida track was the site of his last win, in the season finale last November.
“Man, I wanted to win here so bad,” Hill said. “This is my home track. I ran a lot of races here in the Bandoleros and Legends Car series and won a lot of races here doing that. To get a win here would have been really special. I guess we have to be the first losers this year. We’ll try again next year.”