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Austin Hill stretches fuel, steals Atlanta Xfinity win

Hill (Person) Chevrolet Jesse Love AJ Allmendinger Riley Herbst Ryan Truex Ford Toyota Parker Kligerman Chandler Smith

Hill, who won his third straight season opener at Daytona last weekend, had not led a single lap Saturday entering overtime.

Although Hill’s Richard Childress Racing’s teammate, Jesse Love, had dominated the race and led on the restart, he quickly fell to the wayside when his No. 2 Chevrolet ran out of fuel.

That allowed Hill to inherit the lead and he managed to hold off Chandler Smith – who pit under the last caution for fuel – by 0.106 seconds to claim the win, the eighth of his career.

The final stage remained caution-free until cars began running out of fuel with two of the scheduled 163 laps to go. Both Love and Hill had been told by their respective teams they were good to make it to the finish.

However, with Love in the lead most of the time, he wasn’t able to save quite as much as Hill, which left Hill in a better position in overtime.

“I just got to thank my guys, everyone on this No. 21 Chevrolet. I was really down and out and thinking (Love) was going to win,” Hill said. “I thought if I can’t win then hopefully my teammate can win.

“I have to congratulate my teammate. He ran an awesome race. To be a rookie and led that many laps (157), he should be sitting right here in Victory Lane.”

Three-time Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen ended up third in his second series start, Sheldon Creed was fourth and Parker Reztlaff rounded out the top five.

Stage 1

Love led all 40 laps on his way to a dominating Stage 1 win over Riley Herbst. Sam Mayer was third, Ryan Truex fourth and Parker Kligerman rounded out the top five.

Stage 2

Love again dominated, easily holding off Justin Allgaier by 0.134 seconds to win Stage 2, leading all but one green flag lap. Herbst was third, Truex fourth and Sammy Smith rounded out the top five.

Stage 3

During the break between Stages 2 and 3, the lead-lap cars all pit with A.J. Allmendinger first off pit road. Jeremy Clements was too fast on pit road and had to restart from the rear of the field.

Allmendinger led the way on the restart with 76 laps remaining.

Allmendinger and Love then spent several laps racing side-by-side for the lead before Love finally cleared him to reclaim the lead on lap 94.

With 50 laps remaining, Love remained out front of Allmendinger followed by Herbst, Truex and Kligerman.

A few laps later, Herbst got around Allmendinger for second, which left Allmendinger briefly in the bottom lane and he fell back in the field to 12th.

With less than 25 laps to go and the race having stayed green, most of the lead-lap cars were told they were good on fuel to make it to the end.

Love remained comfortably in control of the race with 10 laps remaining followed closely by Herbst and Truex as the field remained mostly single file.

With two laps to go, both Herbst and Cole Custer ran out of fuel.

NASCAR was forced to throw a caution seconds later when Ryan Sieg also ran out of fuel and his car came to a stop on the track.

Love, Truex, Kligerman, Hill and Chandler Smith all elected to remain on the track to start the two-lap overtime.

CLA DRIVER # MANUFACTURER LAPS TIME INTERVAL PITS POINTS
1 A. HillRICHARD CHILDRESS RACING 21 Chevrolet 169

1:55'16.322

   4 43
2
C. SmithJOE GIBBS RACING
81 Toyota 169

+0.106

1:55'16.428

 0.106 6 40
3 S. van GisbergenKAULIG RACING 97 Chevrolet 169

+0.281

1:55'16.603

 0.175 8 34
4 S. CreedJOE GIBBS RACING 18 Toyota 169

+0.414

1:55'16.736

 0.133 6 37
5
P. RetzlaffJORDAN ANDERSON RACING
31 Chevrolet 169

+0.735

1:55'17.057

 0.321 6 32
6 J. ClementsJEREMY CLEMENTS RACING 51 Chevrolet 169

+0.780

1:55'17.102

 0.045 7 31
7
A. AlfredoOUR MOTORSPORTS
5 Chevrolet 169

+0.802

1:55'17.124

 0.022 9 30
8 J. EarnhardtSAM HUNT RACING 26 Toyota 169

+2.103

1:55'18.425

 1.301 6 29
9 R. TruexJOE GIBBS RACING 19 Toyota 169

+2.856

1:55'19.178

 0.753 5 42
10
S. SmithJR MOTORSPORTS
8 Chevrolet 169

+3.062

1:55'19.384

 0.206 6 34
11
S. MayerJR MOTORSPORTS
1 Chevrolet 169

+3.294

1:55'19.616

 0.232 7 34
12
J. LoveRICHARD CHILDRESS RACING
2 Chevrolet 169

+5.147

1:55'21.469

 1.853 5 45
13 A. AllmendingerKAULIG RACING 16 Chevrolet 169

+14.064

1:55'30.386

 8.917 7 31
14 B. JonesJR MOTORSPORTS 9 Chevrolet 169

+19.016

1:55'35.338

 4.952 8 23
15 R. HerbstSTEWART-HAAS RACING 98 Ford 168

+1 Lap

1:55'16.882

 1 Lap 6 39
16 C. CusterSTEWART-HAAS RACING 00 Ford 168

+1 Lap

1:55'17.255

 0.373 6 25
17 K. WeathermanDGM RACING 91 Chevrolet 168

+1 Lap

1:55'21.039

 3.784 6 20
18 B. McLeodBJ MCLEOD MOTORSPORTS 78 Chevrolet 168

+1 Lap

1:55'28.365

 7.326 7 19
19 P. KligermanBIG MACHINE RACING TEAM 48 Chevrolet 168

+1 Lap

1:55'44.888

 16.523 7 24
20 B. PooleALPHA PRIME RACING 44 Chevrolet 167

+2 Laps

1:55'17.536

 1 Lap 6 17
21
L. HoneymanYOUNG'S MOTORSPORTS
42 Chevrolet 167

+2 Laps

1:55'17.616

 0.080 6 16
22 R. SiegRSS RACING 39 Ford 167

+2 Laps

1:55'17.881

 0.265 6 17
23 J. BurtonJORDAN ANDERSON RACING 27 Chevrolet 167

+2 Laps

1:55'19.774

 1.893 8 14
24 J. YeleySS-GREEN LIGHT RACING 14 Chevrolet 167

+2 Laps

1:55'20.215

 0.441 8 13
25 R. EllisALPHA PRIME RACING 43 Chevrolet 167

+2 Laps

1:55'20.644

 0.429 7 12
26
N. LeitzDGM RACING
92 Chevrolet 167

+2 Laps

1:55'21.193

 0.549 6 11
27 H. DeeganAM RACING 15 Ford 167

+2 Laps

1:55'21.377

 0.184 7 10
28 J. AllgaierJR MOTORSPORTS 7 Chevrolet 167

+2 Laps

1:56'26.988

 1'05.611 5 22
29 J. GaseJOEY GASE MOTORSPORTS 35 Chevrolet 166

+3 Laps

1:55'21.645

 1 Lap 6 8
30
B. PerkinsRSS RACING
29 Ford 166

+3 Laps

1:55'27.436

 5.791 6 7
31
D. CramJD MOTORSPORTS
4 Chevrolet 166

+3 Laps

1:55'29.750

 2.314 8 6
32 J. NemechekJOE GIBBS RACING 20 Toyota 165

+4 Laps

1:55'20.400

 1 Lap 9  
33
E. PatrickSS-GREEN LIGHT RACING
07 Chevrolet 165

+4 Laps

1:55'22.695

 2.295 6 4
34 G. SmithleyJD MOTORSPORTS 6 Chevrolet 165

+4 Laps

1:55'36.231

 13.536 8 3
35
C. MclaughlinRSS RACING
38 Ford 164

+5 Laps

1:55'26.729

 1 Lap 6  
36
K. SiegRSS RACING
28 Ford 164

+5 Laps

1:55'29.607

 2.878 8 1
37 J. WilliamsKAULIG RACING 11 Chevrolet 159

+10 Laps

1:55'32.966

 5 Laps 10 1
38 J. AndersonJORDAN ANDERSON RACING 32 Chevrolet 98

+71 Laps

1:14'59.031

 61 Laps 8 1
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