Austin Hill celebrates in victory lane after winning Friday night’s NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series race at Daytona International Speedway. Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images
Austin Hill held off a hard last lap charge from Grant Enfinger in double overtime to score his first career NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series win Friday night in a war of attrition at Daytona International Speedway.
With all but a record nine of the 32 starters eliminated after a record 11 cautions, Hill grabbed lead on the final restart with a push from Spencer Boyd. He then held off challenges from Matt Crafton and Enfinger over the final lap en route to the win.
Along with it being his first career series win, it also makes the Winston, Georgia speedster the distinction of becoming the first Peach State driver to win in the Truck Series race at Daytona International Speedway.
“I never would have thought in a million years I’d win at Daytona,” Hill said. “We’ve had some success at Daytona before, but just didn’t have the finishes we were looking for there at the end. We’d have something happen and to be able to come on board with Hattori Racing and start off the season like this, I think there’s going to be a lot of good things to come for us.”
It also gives Hattori Racing Enterprises their first victory after parting with Brett Moffitt after winning the 2018 series championship, and locks them into a shot to defend the title later this year.
While Hill ran at the front of the pack, leading several times, the race took a big turn with just a few laps left, when contact between Gus Dean and Sheldon Creed sent Dean into the leader, Ben Rhodes. That sent Rhodes spinning, gathering up several trucks in the process. Hill and Crafton avoided the trouble, and that set up the first overtime attempt.
Hill and Crafton raced side-by-side with no drafting help from behind on the start, with Hill getting the edge. He saw that edge go away when the trucks of Bobby Gerhart and Austin Wayne Self crashed off turn two, sending the race into a second overtime.
Hill again grabbed the lead on the start, aided from behind by Boyd. Behind them, teammates Crafton and Enfinger made a high line run to try to get to the leader. Hill threw a block on Crafton and held onto the point.
With the white flag in the air, Enfinger moved past Crafton and tried to make a run on the leader coming to the checkered flag.
Enfinger tagged Hill’s back bumper, but Hill was able to hang on to score the win.
“The 98 (Enfinger) got to me down in the center of (turns) three and four and kind of jacked me up pretty good,” Hill said. “I didn’t think I was going to be able to hold onto that. We were saving fuel at the end. Coming off of four, I was pretty scared. I didn’t think we were going to make it to the finish.”
Along with the heat from Crafton and Enfinger, Hill had to contend with trying to save fuel due to the double overtime periods. The 11 laps run under caution in overtime didn’t help either.
Hill said he didn’t have any confidence in his fuel saving strategy.
“I didn’t have any confidence to be honest with you,” he said. “We pitted really early and we already knew it was going to be close and then when we went overtime, I was so scared. I just knew I was going to run out coming off of four and not make it to the line. So much stuff was going through my head, but hey, we’re here in victory lane.”
Ross Chastain finished in third, with Boyd in fourth and Crafton in fifth.
The multitude of cautions whittled down the field. The first came on lap 55, when contact between Jordan Anderson and Creed triggered an 11 truck pile-up coming off the fourth turn. Among those involved were pole sitter Christian Eckes, defending race winner Johnny Sauter, Self, Enfinger, Gus Dean, Myatt Snider, Stewart Friesen, defending series champion Brett Moffitt and Brennan Poole.
Another costly caution came on lap 88, when the truck of Todd Gilliland was turned into the outside wall on the backstretch when his Kyle Busch Motorsports teammate, Harrison Burton, attempted to bump draft him. A third KBM truck, driven by Todd’s father, David Gilliland, was also involved.
The scariest moment came during a caution on the third lap. Bryan Dauzat had tagged the wall after contact from another truck. With the contact leaving his truck with no brakes, Dauzat came down pit road, where he struck his jack man, Billy Rock, sending him flying through the air.
NASCAR reported that Rock was awake and alert, and was transported to an area hospital for further evaluation.
NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series
Daytona International Speedway – Daytona Beach, FL
NextEra Energy Resources 250 – February 15, 2019
1. (10) Austin Hill, Toyota, 111.
2. (5) Grant Enfinger, Ford, 111.
3. (23) Ross Chastain(i), Chevrolet, 111.
4. (14) Spencer Boyd, Chevrolet, 111.
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6. (32) Josh Reaume, Chevrolet, 111.
7. (28) Timothy Peters, Chevrolet, 111.
8. (30) Angela Ruch, Chevrolet, 111.
9. (12) Austin Wayne Self, Chevrolet, 111.
10. (7) Stewart Friesen, Chevrolet, Accident, 108.
11. (29) Bobby Gerhart, Chevrolet, Accident, 105.
12. (9) Clay Greenfield, Chevrolet, Accident, 103.
13. (2) David Gilliland, Toyota, Accident, 100.
14. (22) Ben Rhodes, Ford, Accident, 98.
15. (13) Gus Dean #, Chevrolet, Accident, 98.
16. (19) Joe Nemechek, Chevrolet, Accident, 98.
17. (6) Sheldon Creed #, Chevrolet, Accident, 98.
18. (4) Harrison Burton #, Toyota, Accident, 89.
19. (3) Todd Gilliland, Toyota, Accident, 88.
20. (25) Cory Roper, Ford, Accident, 76.
21. (24) Myatt Snider, Ford, Accident, 62.
22. (1) Christian Eckes, Toyota, Accident, 61.
23. (17) Johnny Sauter, Ford, Accident, 60.
24. (26) Brennan Poole, Toyota, Accident, 55.
25. (27) Jordan Anderson, Chevrolet, Accident, 53.
26. (8) Brett Moffitt, Chevrolet, Accident, 53.
27. (16) Chris Fontaine, Toyota, Accident, 27.
28. (31) Ray Ciccarelli, Chevrolet, Accident, 27.
29. (18) Tyler Dippel #, Chevrolet, Accident, 23.
30. (20) Robby Lyons II, Chevrolet, Accident, 16.
31. (21) Bryan Dauzat, Chevrolet, Accident, 2.
32. (11) Natalie Decker #, Toyota, Accident, 1.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 104.498 mph.
Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 39 Mins, 20 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.278 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 11 for 55 laps.
Lead Changes: 15 among 10 drivers.
Lap Leaders: C. Eckes 1;S. Creed # 2-22;J. Sauter 23-26;B. Moffitt 27-33;J. Sauter 34-37;T. Gilliland 38;J. Sauter 39-42;D. Gilliland 43;J. Reaume 44;D. Gilliland 45-59;A. Ruch 60-61;A. Hill 62-86;B. Rhodes 87-96;A. Hill 97;B. Rhodes 98;A. Hill 99-111.
Leaders Summary: (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led) Austin Hill 3 times for 39 laps; Sheldon Creed # 1 time for 21 laps; David Gilliland 2 times for 16 laps; Johnny Sauter 3 times for 12 laps; Ben Rhodes 2 times for 11 laps; Brett Moffitt 1 time for 7 laps; Angela Ruch 1 time for 2 laps; Josh Reaume 1 time for 1 lap; Todd Gilliland 1 time for 1 lap; Christian Eckes 1 time for 1 lap.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 2,16,51,24,98,22,68,27,30,4
Stage #2 Top Ten: 13,52,99,17,20,98,27,4,18,22
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