Hill roars to Xfinity Championship 4 with victory at Homestead

An emotional Austin Hill climbed out of his No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet on the frontstretch at Homestead-Miami Speedway to celebrate one of the biggest wins of his blossoming career, taking home the Credit One NASCAR AMEX Credit Card 300 trophy on Saturday. and secured one. of four positions to compete for a trophy in the series championship final on November 9.

Hill, who also swept the race’s two stage wins, took the lead from Stewart-Haas Racing’s Cole Custer with 11 laps remaining Saturday night at the 1.5-mile South Florida track and cruised to a healthy victory. of 3.045 s over the other Playoff driver. and the reigning Custer Series Champion.

It was Hill’s fourth win of the season and his tenth of this race. But most importantly, it’s the first time the 30-year-old Georgia native will have the opportunity to compete for the championship trophy after multi-winning seasons over the past three years.

You can hear the excitement in his voice.

Austin Hill heads to the #Championship4! #NASCARPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/sVgYNV7CRI

—NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) October 26, 2024

“I worked very hard for this. “A lot of people doubt me, but I wake up every day to prove them wrong,” Hill said. “I deserve to be here and I deserve to compete for a championship. This number 21 team deserves it as much as I do. They work every day like I do. I have to hand it over to those guys. They gave me a tremendous car.

“I can honestly say that I have never cried coming to the start-finish line, but I had to gather my emotions entering Turn 1 after the box. All the hard work and dedication that goes into this. I don’t think everyone understands what this means for me, my family and Bennett. …I had to be there today.

Pausing to take it in, he added, “This is amazing. To reach the Final Four. I have worked very hard on this and my dreams came true.”

With his and AJ Allmendinger’s victory last week at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, there are now only two positions left in the title fight and one more race, at the half-mile at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway next week, to establish the championship quartet.

JR Motorsports driver Justin Allgaier, who had only three top-10 finishes at Homestead, took the checkered flag in eighth place, which was good enough to keep the driver of the No. 7 JRM Chevrolet in the lead. in points in third place if necessary. that to advance to the championship race.

Custer, whose No. 00 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford led the race with 87 of the 200 laps, is now on the cutting line for fourth place with a 28-point lead over Saturday’s polesitter Chandler Smith. Smith finished 13th and, like the bottom four drivers in the standings, is essentially in a must-win situation next weekend.

Hill’s fellow rookie, Jesse Love, ran out front much of the day and finished fourth. He is now sixth in the points standings, 35 points behind Custer.

“It just shows you how good you have to be to get to the Championship Four,” Love said, referring to the Phoenix finals: “I feel like if we could get there, we’d have a chance to win.”

JR Motorsports teammates Sam Mayer and Sammy Smith finished ninth and 22nd, respectively, and find themselves in a similar situation to Chandler Smith and Love next week at Martinsville.

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Aric Almirola finished third Saturday behind the Playoff drivers, with Love and JGR’s Sheldon Creed rounding out the top five. Custer’s SHR teammate Riley Herbst, RSS Racing’s Ryan Sieg, Allgaier, Mayer and last week’s race winner Allmendinger rounded out the top 10.

Of note, 18-year-old William Sawalich finished 24th in his long-awaited Xfinity Series debut.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series moves to the half-mile at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway next week for Saturday’s National Debt Relief 200 (4 p.m. ET on The CW, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Allgaier is the defending winner of the race. Almirola won on the track this spring.

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