Richard Childress Racing star Austin Hill was caught up in a big one during the final stage run of the United Rentals 250 at Talladega Superspeedway. Just like the Truck race yesterday, the Xfinity Series race was pretty clean for the first two stages. However, with the finish line inching closer, drivers started to get aggressive, and the ice finally broke on lap 75.

Shane van Gisbergen was in the thick of the action, trying his best to stay in the race. He was leading the charge in the middle lane as the field was three wide lap after lap. But the middle lane lost momentum, and SVG had to make a decision call and opt for the inside lane. But aggressive bumping and banging saw him misjudge his corner exit, and he checked up, losing all his speed.

The #97 without causing any trouble backed off, and in response, Dean Thomspon did the same. However, he didn’t know that the traffic behind was gaining momentum, and thus the #2 Toyota was shoved into the #97 Chevy. This contact turned SVG sideways and rammed multiple race cars right up into the upper lane. Although Austin Hill had no involvement in this crash, he came off the worst as his #21 car took big hits.

“We shouldn’t been back there to begin with, but not your fault.” This was the message he received on the radio. His team pinned the blame on SVG for causing the ruckus and ended their hopes for a strong point finish or potential win. Not only that, the Kaulig Racing driver was also forced to retire as his car was being towed out by the safety crew.

SVG hoping that he didn’t take a huge points dent with a DNF

Jordan Anderson and Dean Thompson, the two non-regular drivers, certainly didn’t help SVG’s cause after he got shipped out of the draft. SVG did his best to avoid any contact and slipped right down the apron. Thompson checked up pretty hard, and Anderson could’ve done the same. But he wasn’t keen on losing the track position or momentum and just banged into the back of the #26 Toyota.

Shane van Gisbergen was struggling with a loose car all day, but just when things started to fall in place for him, he became a victim of a big one at Talladega. “Just sort of stayed on the bottom trying to get back up and saw it and then just got hit by someone else…tage 2 was good. But we were fast there having some good fun up front, but once I put it on the apron, I just tried to merge back nicely, and then I guess there was a bit more happening. Sucks really.” SVG said this to Bob Pockrass after the race.

Superspeedway races have been a tough nut to crack for the #97 team. In all four races combined at Daytona and Talladega, they haven’t been able to crack a single top-10 result. And a DNF certainly adds more pressure for SVG in terms of the points he left on the table. “Yeah, of course I would’ve loved to get more points and a finish. Hopefully, we’re not too far in a hole for the next week,” he added.

Fortunately for SVG, he still has one more road course race left on the schedule. And it just might allow him to book his ticket to the next round.

Chandler Smith locks himself in the Round of 8

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The Talladega race had not one but two drivers sealing their fate for a deep playoff run. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver was battling for the win till the very end but only managed a P5 finish. Smith was already in a safe position coming into the race with a buffer of 36 points, which only improved at Talladega. But not to forget, it was Sam Mayer who was the reason for granting Smith an assured qualification into the next round.

The JRM driver finished the race in 16th place. However, the #1 Chevy Camaro was unable to clear the tech inspection post-race. According to an update shared by Bob Pockrss on X, Mayer’s car’s rear height was found to be too low, which resulted in his disqualification. This change added more points to the driver’s total, and it proved enough for Smith to lock himself in the Round of 8 races.

Given how the race turned out for big names like Cole Custer and Austin Hill, Smith will be feeling lucky to have survived the crashes and advanced to the next round. Today’s result was his fifth straight top-5 finish, so he is turning out to be a contender for the championship.