SONOMA, Calif. — Overlooked in the frenzied battle for Saturday’s Xfinity Series trophy at Sonoma Raceway between race winner Shane van Gisbergen and Austin Hill was the performance of another Austin — Austin Green, who scored a career-best fourth-place finish in just his third start.
The son of former driver and current NASCAR official, David Green, Austin earns his stripes currently in the Trans-Am ranks, competing regularly on road courses. He also scored a top 10 in his lone ARCA Menards Series run at Toledo in 2020.
At Circuit of The Americas earlier this season, the 23-year-old wheelman earned his first NASCAR national series start with Jordan Anderson Racing and excelled with a seventh-place run.
He followed up COTA with a top 15 at Portland International Raceway last weekend before working his way through the field at Sonoma from a 22nd-place starting spot to score his best result so far. Green has bettered his finishing result from his starting position by at least 11 spots in each of his three starts so far.
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“We didn’t get the qualifying spot that we like so I definitely need to work on that,” Green said after Saturday’s race. “But yeah, just had to pick them off and it was a long race, so keep the nose on it and hats off to everybody at Jordan Anderson Racing. [The car] was on rails [Saturday]. We kind of struggled on short runs, so I was thankful a caution didn’t come out there at the end, but it was awesome.”
With help from Trans-Am Series organization Peterson Racing, JAR owner Jordan Anderson has been able to maximize the most out of Green’s starts as well as JAR full-time driver Parker Retzlaff. The Wisconsin native finished 11th in Saturday’s affair and has results of ninth and two 11th-place runs in three road-course events in 2024.
Having taken a similar journey through the racing ranks, Anderson appreciates how Green has approached his first national-series starts.
“I’m just so happy for Austin because he’s kind of cut out of the same cloth that I am,” Anderson told NASCAR.com. “He’s had to work hard for these opportunities. When you see a young guy come in and do his homework and work hard and then come up here, he kept a level head all day. He’s up there racing against guys who’ve been doing this for a long time and just extremely proud of how well he handled himself.”
Green will next compete on the Chicago streets when NASCAR returns to the Windy City on Independence Day weekend, along with some select starts on ovals later in the year as he continues to build his NASCAR resume.
“I think Austin has a bright future in our sport,” Anderson said. “I put him and Parker in the same boat. They come out here and they’ll race nose to nose with these guys. They know they gotta be there at the end and both of them did such a great job with that today. I’m excited for him. I know we’ve all talked about some oval races coming up so that’s gonna be cool to see him get an opportunity to go to a place where his background is oval racing. I think he’s gonna keep getting better and keep sharpening his talent here, and hopefully, he’ll keep it rolling.”