Austin Hill is the king of the hill … again.
Richard Childress Racing driver Hill won the rescheduled NASCAR Xfinity Series United Rentals 300 at Daytona International Speedway for the third-straight year, but he had to work for it.
Hill started in second position next to teammate Jesse Love, but both were caught up in a wreck on lap 37 that left their cars damaged.
Hill’s survived it better, but he had to race with tape covering the right front corner of his car, compromising its aerodynamics when he was running up front and out of the draft.
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He then made a bizarre mistake by entering pit road in third gear instead of second, broke the pit road speed limit and missed his pit stall, which resulted in a drive-through penalty.
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Hill was in 22nd for a restart on lap 97 of the 120 lap-race after a flat tire and worked his way up to third for the final restart on lap 118. He was in front for the final lap and managed to hold off former teammate Sheldon Creed for the win.
“I don’t know what was going on with me on pit road today,” Hill said on Fox Sports after the race.
“But my guys just kept telling me, ‘Look, man, dig deep; you’re really good at these superspeedways.’ I tried to screw it up on pit road-sped on pit road, slid through the box.”
“I don’t even know what time it is. I know it’s past my bedtime, but we’re about to party tonight, I can tell you that.”
Rookie Parker Retzlaff came home in third in front of his team owner Jordan Anderson and Chandler Smith.
Hill joins Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Dale Earnhardt Sr. as drivers who have won at least three consecutive United Rentals 300s since 1982, with Earnhardt Sr. the record holder at five in a row from 1990 through 1994.
Click here for the full United Rentals 300 results