Austin Hill Gets Another Home Victory at Atlanta

Austin Hill can check off sweeping both Atlanta races on his 2024 season, after taking the lead on lap 152 of 163 and holding on for the rest of the race. Hill would collect his ninth win of his career, and his seventh on a drafting track.

“I’m speechless right now,” Hill said in Victory Lane. “Our Bennett Chevrolet had speed all day, but the handling just was not there the way that I would like. You come to these superspeedway-style events, and you want to have a car that’s trimmed out. You don’t worry too much about handling.

“But I thought handling was going to be an issue, and it definitely played a part today. We made some right moves at the right time between my spotter, Derek Kneeland, and me. We got up to second and when we had that restart (on Lap 150), I was contemplating ‘Do I go top, or do I go bottom?’

“We both agreed that we have to go bottom and try to get to the lead and if the bottom didn’t work out, then so be it.”

Hill got help from the Sam Hunt Racing No. 26 Toyota, being driven by Corey Heim. With the push, Heim stayed up top instead of pushing Chandler Smith, a Toyota teammate, which left him both surprised and rather frustrated.

“I expected my Toyota teammate to come with me, and he didn’t,” said Smith, who would finish fourth in the race. “I’m kind of speechless.”

Corey Heim, who finished fifth behind Chandler Smith, felt like his best chance to win was to stay with Hill.

“He (Smith) had no run and no momentum, so why go to the bottom?” Heim explained after the race.

Parker Kligerman would finish second to Hill, while AJ Allmendinger would finish third. This happened after Heim tried to make a pass at the top of the track but scraped the outside wall and lost momentum, resulting in Heim’s fifth-place finish.

A big multi-car accident took place on lap 145 after Justin Allgaier and Cole Custer made contact with each other, which proceeded to collect the likes of Taylor Gray, Ryan Sieg, Riley Herbst, and pole winner Jesse Love.

Ryan Seig was in a battle for the final playoff spot with Sammy Smith, as he was looking solid until being caught up in that wreck. He now sits 44 points from the cutline.