Austin Hill scored the emotional first NASCAR National Series win for Richard Childress Racing following the passing of Kyle Busch in a dramatic last-lap battle with Taylor Gray in Saturday’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series United Rentals Driven to Serve 250 at Naval Base Coronado.
Race Results: United Rentals Driven to Serve 250 at San Diego
After Gray sent Carson Kvapil spinning for the lead with two laps remaining, that allowed Hill to close in on him, and at that point, it was pretty clear that everything was fair game in the battle for the victory.
.@Taylor_Gray makes contact with @Carson_Kvapil on the turn and moves into the lead! ? pic.twitter.com/Ub4LMkGx2a
— The CW Sports (@TheCW_Sports) June 21, 2026
On the final lap of the race, Hill would nudge his way past Gray for the race lead, and try as he might, Gray was unable to get back to the rear bumper of Hill for the remainder of the final lap of the race.
WHAT A FINISH!!!@_AustinHill passes Taylor Gray on the final lap and earns his first career road course victory at San Diego! pic.twitter.com/KxT5LWzdkF
— The CW Sports (@TheCW_Sports) June 21, 2026
For Hill, this marks his second win of the season and 16th career O’Reilly Series win, but it was his first ever on a road course. Hill has worked diligently on his road racing craft through his career, and had come close in the past. He was happy to finally notch a win on a road course.
“It’s extremely special just to finally check that box of getting a road course win,” Hill said. “We’ve been so close so many times. Our 1-800-PACK-RAT Chevrolet was extremely fast, and I was looking for something those last few laps.”
As he was chasing down Gray, Hill asked Busch, his fallen teammate, for some help.
“I’m not going to lie, I started talking to [Kyle Busch] a little bit,” Hill admitted. “Down the straightaways, I’m like, ‘Kyle, if you’re here, give me something, right? Let me find another gear.’ And for whatever reason, the car started to come to life, the two leaders got together, and when there was blood in the water behind [Gray], I knew it was going to be tough to get around him, but it was going to be a battle.”
Hill will now look to follow up the win on Saturday with a good run behind the wheel of the No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Anduril 250. Hill will start from the 10th position in Sunday’s race.
Gray was disappointed to see the win slip through his grasp, but wasn’t sure what he could have done differently in his battle with Hill, as his car had developed a severe wheel-hopping condition in the closing laps.
“Just had a really bad wheel-hop there at the end of my run. I don’t know, I have to go back and look at it. Maybe shade lower on entry. I don’t know. Just not get the car to wheel-hop, honestly. Yeah, pretty disappointed in myself,” Gray anguished.
As for the incident, which sent Kvapil spinning from a potential first career win to a fourth-place finish, Gray said it was his dreaded wheel-hop that caused that incident as well.
“Essentially just wheel-hopped underneath him, right? I got really bad wheel-hop at the end of my run, and kind of fought that all day,” Gray explained. “At the end of my runs, I would pick up really bad wheel-hop.”
Gray continued, “I hate it for JR [Motorsports], but unfortunately, it is what it is.”
While the contact with Kvapil was easy to explain from Gray’s perspective, the explanation wasn’t easy to digest for Kvapil. However, the driver of the No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet took the loss on the chin.
“It’s really hard to make peace with that. Obviously, I feel like [Crew Chief] Rodney [Childers] and everybody on this Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet brought us a really fast car, and gave us a position to win a race, and obviously, we didn’t. So, that one really hurts,” Kvapil stated.
Sheldon Creed would finish in the third position, between Gray and Kvapil, after an afternoon, where Creed encountered an inebriated fan during a red flag in the race. The fan hopped over the fencing at the track, walked up to Creed’s No. 00 Chevrolet, and proceeded to have a conversation before he hopped back over the fence and was promptly arrested.
"I think he's wasted."
A fan just hopped the fence to chat with @sheldoncreed ? pic.twitter.com/QPZyCbP6TI
— The CW Sports (@TheCW_Sports) June 21, 2026
Sammy Smith would rally from a couple of spins to finish fifth.
Jesse Love, who started from the rear of the field due to pre-race inspection issues, would claw his way back to a sixth-place result.
Parker Retzlaff, Austin Green, Harrison Burton, and Corey Day rounded out the top-10 finishers.
For Day, it was an incredible finish to a headache of a day.
In the opening laps of the race, Day’s car collided with a dislodged manhole cover that had found its way on the racing surface of the 3.4-mile street course. The manhole cover went through his grille opening and shot into his radiator.
Caution is out for … a manhole cover in @corey_day_'s radiator.
Day of many firsts here at San Diego. pic.twitter.com/fghOmk4qXs
— The CW Sports (@TheCW_Sports) June 20, 2026
Due to the uniqueness of the situation, NASCAR allowed Day’s No. 17 Hendrick Motorsports team to repair the car during the red flag, and when he returned to the track, NASCAR also awarded the driver back the four laps he had lost due to the repairs, which, until Saturday, was an unprecedented measure by the sanctioning body.
The race was marred by two lengthy red flag periods, the first of which was an 18-minute, 34-second delay for the manhole cover. NASCAR went around the course and made sure every manhole cover on the course was secured and welded before resuming the event.
The race also featured an incredibly hard crash on Lap 36 when Sam Mayer would misjudge a concrete barrier. Mayer would collide with the barrier and would shoot back across the track into the outer concrete barriers, and he would take Anthony Alfredo’s No. 96 Chevrolet with him.
BIG crash after the restart with @sam_mayer_ hitting the wall hard. pic.twitter.com/JL9k9XpJmM
— The CW Sports (@TheCW_Sports) June 20, 2026
In all, 25 cars were involved in the crash.
Due to the impact on the temporary concrete walls and fencing, the race had to go under a red flag for 43 minutes, 10 seconds for repairs.
