Richard Childress Racing driver Austin Hill won the first road or street course-style race of his career in the United Rentals Driven To Serve 250 at Naval Base Coronado on Saturday with a late push to the lead, and he said he had some help along the way.
“I was just looking for something those last few laps and, I’m not gonna lie, I started talking to this guy a little bit,” Hill said as he gestured to the Kyle Busch No. 8 hat he put on after the win.
“Down the straightaways I’m like, ‘man, Kyle, if you’re here, give me something, right, like let me find another gear,’ and for whatever reason the car started coming alive.”
Hill started from fourth, won Stage 1 and was running third with three laps to go and Carson Kvapil and Taylor Gray running side by side in front of him until Gray ran wide and spun Kvapil to open the door for Hill.
Hill then went to work chasing down Gray and passed him in Turn 3 of the 3.4-mile 16-turn course and held him off to win by more than a second.
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“When there was blood in the water behind the 54 (Gray) I knew it was going to be tough to get around him,” Hill said. “But it was going to be a battle, and when I got clear of him was very surprised to see how much of a gap I got on him.”
The win was the first for Richard Childress Racing since the death of Busch, whose Cup Series car HIll has taken over for the rest of the season.
The San Diego race lasted nearly three-and-a-half hours and included two red flag periods. The first came on lap 6 when a sewer vent cover came loose and damaged Corey Day’s car, while the second was for a wall repair on Lap 35 of the 60-lap race, when Sam Mayer had a head-on crash that caused a 23-car pileup.
During the second stoppage a fan managed to climb over two fences, approached Sheldon Creed’s car, and departed the same way. He was later seen being apprehended by security.
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