RCR announced earlier this week that it had signed Hill to a multi-year contract extension to compete in the Xfinity Series with the organization.
Hill, 29, has six career wins, including four this year, and remains in contention to win the regular season championship with RCR’s No. 21 Chevrolet team.
In an interview Saturday at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International, Hill confirmed his new contract extension does not necessarily preclude him from moving up to the Cup Series.
“Next year, it will definitely be Xfinity, for sure. Going forward after that, it all depends,” Hill said. “If things open up – let’s say RCR is able to acquire a third charter or something like that – there’s no telling what could happen.
“As of right now, it is structured for Xfinity for the next two years, but there again, things could change and the way the contract is structured and all, it could obviously change. Maybe at the end of next year we might have a better understanding of where we might be.
“Honestly, I love running the Xfinity Series; I love racing the Xfinity cars. They’re a lot of fun to drive. Actually, I’m really happy with where I’m at right now and I don’t think I have to rush it to go to Cup. I’m having a lot of fun right now where I’m at.”
Hill, who has also earned eight Truck and five wins in the ARCA East series during his career, said he has fielded several offers from other teams in recent months and that is what promoted the extension with RCR.
“I’ve been talking to a lot of different teams, potentially about going Cup racing and I’ve actually came very close to going Cup racing,” he said. “At the end of the day, Richard (Childress, team owner) made it pretty tough on me, just because of the man he is and everything that we’ve done last season and this season together.
“I’m very, very loyal to a fault. There’s a lot of things outside of just driving the race car that this just made sense to me. That’s one of the reasons it made it at the end of the day an easy decision to stay here with RCR and to keep building that momentum with them going forward.”
Hoping to run more Cup races while an Xfinity regular
Even if he remains in the Xfinity Series for the foreseeable future, Hill hopes to have occasional opportunities to compete in Cup races, which he has already done both with RCR and Beard Motorsports.
He’s made four career starts over the past two seasons with a best finish of 18th at Michigan in his Cup debut last season with RCR.
“There are options out there to try to run some Cup races. You know, if I can next year run five, six, seven Cup races, that would be great to do,” Hill said. “As of right now, I don’t have anything for next season or the season after on Cup side.
“If we do run some Cup races, with Beard (Motorsports) or wherever that is, I’d like to try run some mile-and-a-halve (tracks), maybe some short tracks, that type of thing. Just dip my toes into those and see how I like it.”
