Hill took the lead during a round of pit stops under caution late in the race but a spin by Parker Kligerman with four of 147 laps remaining sent the race into a two-lap overtime.
Hill appeared to spin his tires on the restart – a problem that plagued him much of the race – and Hamlin quickly got around him to reclaim the lead.
Hamlin edged Hill by 0.657 seconds to earn the victory in his only series start of the 2023 season. It’s the first series win for Hamlin since 2017 and the 18th of his career.
Denny dances with the Lady in Black again.@dennyhamlin gets his 6th #XfinitySeries win at @TooToughToTame! pic.twitter.com/EHFdzJ5QzM
— Xfinity Racing (@XfinityRacing) September 2, 2023
“I appreciate everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing giving me the opportunity to do one Xfinity race per year and it’s great to have a win,” Hamlin said.
“It took a while (to find a rhythm). I really needed some long runs, but I really didn’t want to show everything we had until the very end of the race there. It was going to be cool to see that race play out (under green) but, still, a great win.”
John Hunter Nemechek, who won both stages, finished third, Cole Custer was fourth and Josh Berry rounded out the top five.
Completing the top-10 were Riley Herbst, Justin Allgaier, Sheldon Creed, Kyle Busch and Daniel Hemric.
With one race remaining in the regular season, Herbst holds a one-point advantage over Kligerman for the final playoff spot.
Stage 1
Nemechek claimed the Stage 1 win under caution after Josh Williams hit the wall after having a right-rear tire go down with three laps remaining.
Hamlin ended up second, Kyle Larson third, Allgaier fourth and Custer rounded out the top five.
Stage 2
Nemechek held off a late charge by Hill and edged him by 0.557 seconds to take the Stage 2 win. Larson was third, Hamlin fourth and Allgaier fifth.
Larson pit while pit road was closed before the start of Stage 3 to allow his No. 17 Hendrick Motorsports team to address engine issues.
Stage 3
Following the break between Stages 2 and 3, all the lead-lap cars pit with Hill the first off pit road. The race returned to green with 51 laps remaining and Hill followed by Nemechek,
Jeremy Clements and Kyle Sieg wrecked on the frontstretch early in the final stage in an incident that also collected Brett Moffitt.
Most of the lead-lap cars elected to pit but Parker Retzclaff was among those who stayed on the track and led the way on the restart with 39 laps to go in the race. Hill lined up 10th, the first car with new tires.
Hill, on new tires, reclaimed the lead two laps later as Hamlin made his way to second.
On lap 124, Hamlin went inside of Hill and came away with the lead for the first time in the race.
Ryan Sieg spun off Turn 4 and came to a rest on the frontstretch which brought out a caution with 15 laps remaining.
Around goes Ryan Sieg.
— Xfinity Racing (@XfinityRacing) September 2, 2023
Catch the end of #XfinitySeries live on USA Network of the Xfinity Stream app. pic.twitter.com/NUXp2gDHc2
All of the lead-lap cars pit with Hill once again first off pit road. Hill led Nemechek and Hamlin on the restart with 10 laps remaining.
Kligerman spun off Turn 4 after contact with Sam Mayer which sent up a two-lap overtime restart and Hill out front of Hamlin.
