Austin Hill Navigates Overtime for Fourth Xfinity Victory of 2023 Season

(Photo: Wayne Riegle | The Podium Finish)

LONG POND, Pa. – Austin Hill didn’t feel like he had a car capable of winning the race.

But after speeding on pit road at the end of Stage 2, Hill and his No. 21 team for Richard Childress Racing had their beds made — they were going to try and make it. Hill topped off his Chevrolet Camaro under caution a few laps later and started to save hard.

After two late restarts and a third consecutive race with NASCAR Overtime, Hill outlasted Sam Mayer, Chase Elliott and Riley Herbst to win the Explore the Pocono Mountains 225 at Pocono Raceway for his fourth win of the 2023 season.

“I thought we could run fifth to eighth but didn’t think we had anything for the leader,” Hill said in a press conference after the race. “It all just worked out the way it was supposed to. It was one of those races where the fastest car didn’t win, but we did everything we need to do to win today.”

Hill wasn’t much of a factor in the early part of the race. After starting 11th, he finished a caution-free Stage 1 in 10th and dropped back to 12th at the end of Stage 2.

Hill was among a group of three drivers including Sam Mayer and Riley Herbst who planned to make it to the end of the race on fuel after a crash on the restart to commence the final stage. Had Hill not sped on pit road beforehand, he wouldn’t have been in a position to stretch the rest of the race on fuel. He would’ve instead pitted toward the middle of the final stage like most of the other lead lap cars did.

“It kind of played into our hand after the speeding penalty and having to go to the back, we started thinking about things,” Hill said. “I didn’t think that we were even close to making it. Then when they told me ‘hey, we’re four laps short, start saving fuel,’ I’m like ‘well, we’ll see what happens here.’ We’re gonna at least take a gamble, we’re gonna take a chance, we have three race wins to lean on and we can take that gamble.”

(Photo: Wayne Riegle | The Podium Finish)

After two late cautions resulted in extra opportunities to save fuel and eventually NASCAR Overtime, Hill pounced. Leader Josh Berry, who paced 51 circuits, overdrove Turn 1 and Hill took the lead. Berry tried to swing back on the final lap, but he instead made contact with teammate Sam Mayer and cut his own tire. Hill won under caution while Berry finished 24th.

“The 8 (Berry) got to me, kind of lifted me up a little bit and got beside me. We kind of doored each other off [Turn] 1 [on the final lap] and I knew that the 1 (Mayer) was going to have a big run out back,” Hill said. “I don’t think [Mayer] was trying to give me the push. It looked like he was gonna go try to split us three wide because me and the 8 kind of got away from each other. We weren’t side drafting each other as much, and right at the perfect time, I turned left and [Mayer] turned right and it closed the hole up and it basically made the 1 have to give me the push.”

Mayer finished second for the second time this season, a result he hasn’t had since Auto Club Speedway back in February.

“I think that putting ourselves in that spot and hopefully capitalizing on other people having misfortunes, I think we did a really good job,” Mayer said. “I don’t think we had a lack of momentum going into this, but I think we just had really bad luck. But it’s not because of not putting in effort.”

Chase Elliott, who compted in a one-off for Hendrick Motorsports, finished Saturday’s race in third in the team’s part-time No. 17 entry.

“I don’t think I did anything special by any means, but we ended up with a solid result. Just needed to recognize what I needed in the car a little sooner so I could relay that to the team,” Elliott said.

Stage 1 Results

1. Josh Berry
2. Danie Hemric
3. John Hunter Nemechek
4. Sammy Smith
5. Sheldon Creed
6. Brandon Jones
7. Sam Mayer
8. Justin Allgaier
9. Connor Mosack
10. Austin Hill

Stage 2 Results

1. Josh Berry
2. Justin Allgaier
3. John Hunter Nemechek
4. Brandon Jones
5. Cole Custer
6. Sammy Smith
7. Sam Mayer
8. Riley Herbst
9. Daniel Hemric
10. Chandler Smith

Pocono Mountains 225 Results