DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Austin Hill loves Daytona, and Daytona appears to love him back.
The Richard Childress Racing driver won the first race of the 2023 Xfinity Series season Saturday night — dominating early, hanging on during a crazy finish and notching his second win at Daytona International Speedway in as many years.
It wasn’t without a bunch of drama, though. A caution prompted a late-race restart and forced overtime. The top of the pack was super tight — Hill, John Hunter Nemechek and Justin Allgaier vying for the top spot — and then, after the white flag (marking the race’s last lap), the No. 1 car flipped and a caution came out.
When a caution emerges after the white flag, whoever is leading when the caution comes out is deemed the winner. After a few moments of reviewing tape, NASCAR made it official — Hill had won at Daytona again.
“As soon as the caution lights came on, I thought I had it,” Hill told Fox Sports fresh after doing celebratory donuts on Daytona’s pristine infield. “To get back-to-back here at Daytona, it’s really special.”
John Hunter Nemechek finished second. Justin Allgaier finished third. Parker Retzlaff, who finished fourth, was the highest-finishing rookie.
Hill knew he had a fast car — and he proved that early.
Hill qualified to start on the pole, but he took a trip down pit road before the start of the race to replace a broken radio. That pushed him to the rear to start the race. The driver of the No. 21 car didn’t seem to care, though: He rose through the field quickly, passing cars one by one and fending off a late run from Justin Allgaier to win Stage 1.
In Stage 2, Hill finished third. But most importantly, he stayed in the race. Saturday night was relatively tame for a Daytona race, but there was still carnage: Eight drivers saw their days end early — most notably Daniel Hemric and Sheldon Creed, both of whom had promising runs before getting collected in wrecks they didn’t cause.
Allgaier won Stage 2, led 36 of the race’s 125 laps and competed against Hill all of Saturday. Did he enjoy the battle?
“Yeah, it was really fun,” he told reporters on pit road. “I mean, (Austin) did a great job. The team did a great job. You know, Chevrolet’s working together really hard, and they did a great job doing that.”
The driver of the No. 1 car that flipped and prompted the last caution, Sam Mayer, was safely released from the racetrack’s infield care center.
Other results from Daytona on Saturday
— Saturday’s Xfinity race featured 24 lead changes, 11 different leaders and eight cautions for 32 laps.
— Before the Xfinity race, the ARCA Menards Series featured a bunch of laps under caution and a Greg Van Alst win at Daytona. The race’s most well-known competitor — former “Malcolm In The Middle” star Frankie Muniz — finished 11th.
