It’s Valentine’s Day, and Austin Hill REALLY loves drafting tracks.
The Winston, Georgia-native put his No. 21 Bennett Transportation & Logistics Chevrolet Camaro in Victory Lane once again at Daytona International Speedway on Sunday, his fourth win on the 2.5-mile superspeedway and his 11th on a drafting track in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series.
Now, this wasn’t your typical NASCAR National Series event on a superspeedway, either; this was total domination, with Hill and his teammate Jesse Love combining to lead more than 100 of the 120 laps in the race’s scheduled distance.
It was a critical decision for the Richard Childress Racing driver and his team, though, that may have ultimately secured them a spot in Victory Lane, and that was coming to take Goodyear tires at the end of the race’s second stage.
“When we went back out after the green flag stop, I just kept getting really tight off of Turn 4, and I would get really loose. I’m like, man, if it comes down to the end of this time and I’m getting pushed hard, I don’t think I’m going to win the race. I think I’m going to end up wrecked,” Hill said. “That’s what I love about this team. They believe in me. I believe in them. I know Chad Haney, my crew chief, on the box, he was like, man, this is a really tough decision to go from being third to go back to 14th or whatever it was when we restarted. “The victory marks Hill’s fifth victory in NASCAR’s second-tier division, with Chad Haney calling the shots, the crew chief who ultimately made what the series veteran considered to be a race-winning move.
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As the field scrambled on the final lap, Hill had many challengers, such as Justin Allgaier, Sammy Smith, his teammate Jesse Love, and even Alpha Prime Racing driver Brennan Poole, who was sitting second on the backstretch on the final lap of the race after being involved in a crash that took place before the field even took the green flag on the initial start.
After the No. 21 Chevrolet got clear of the outside line, which included two of the strongest cars all day, Sammy Smith and Jesse Love, Hill was left to defend against Poole, and then Allgaier, but made easy work of both vehicles before coming to the checkered flag as the winner.
Justin Allgaier finished in the runner-up position, 0.081 seconds behind Hill, and while the JR Motorsports driver had an incredible run off Turn 4, it just wasn’t enough to get where he needed to be.
In his first race back as part of the Team Chevy family, Ryan Sieg managed to collect a third-place result for his No. 39 SciAps Chevrolet. Jordan Anderson matched his career-best result in fourth, driving the No. 32 Chevrolet — an entry which, for 2026, will run the complete 33-race schedule. Sammy Smith rounded out the top five after having a fast JR Motorsports Chevrolet all evening.
Ryan Ellis, in his first race driving the No. 02 Chevrolet for Young’s Motorsports, finished in the sixth position, marking a career-best and his second career top-10 result in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. It’s the organization’s second-best result, after a fourth by Leland Honeyman at Talladega in Spring 2024.
Carson Kvapil came home in seventh place, with Blaine Perkins, Jesse Love, and NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series rookie Rajah Caruth rounding out the top-10.
When the checkered flag was displayed, as usually happens at Daytona, carnage had ravaged the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series field, with only 24 drivers finishing the race, only 21 of which finished on the lead lap.
Chevrolet dominated the evening, too, sweeping the top-20 positions in the event, setting a brand-new NASCAR National Series record.
Leaving Daytona, Austin Hill has a commanding 25-point advantage over the field, after winning both stages and getting 55 points for winning the race.
The NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series heads to EchoPark Speedway (Atlanta Motor Speedway) on Saturday, February 21 at 5:00 PM ET on The CW, PRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
