“Those Last 20 Laps Felt Like They Went on Forever”: Austin Hill Talks After His First Win of the Season

A relieved Austin Hill was over the moon as he overcame the disappointment of last week’s 30th-place finish at Texas to register his first win of the season.

Hill won the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 200 at Kansas Speedway in the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series. With Friday’s victory, he sealed his place into the playoffs.

“Oh, man, it’s awesome. We’ve been working so hard this season. We’ve been really consistent. Last week was a bummer, having engine troubles,” said Hill after the race.

“I told the guys before coming here, ‘You know we finished fourth here last year, let’s finish three spots better’,” Hill added as he credited his team for ‘working their tails off week in and week out’.

Austin Hill talks about the incident after the final restart

In an otherwise clean and spotless race from Hill, the only mistake came after the last pit stop on Lap 85.

With an aim to secure the fourth position and top lane going into the final restart, Hill hit the brakes on the pit road. He was hit from behind by another car in the process.

Speaking about the incident, Hill said, “I tried to brake-check a little bit and come out in fourth because I wanted to be in the high lane and I got tagged from behind. That was my bad. I apologize to whoever it was that ended up hitting me.

“Now we’ve got to go replace the bumper and get it ready to go tomorrow,” added Hill, who pipped Brett Moffitt and Grant Enfinger for the top spot.

Challenging ‘final phase’ of the race

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Austin Hill grabbed the lead from Moffitt after the final restart. After Lap 96, he held onto his lead and did not let go till the chequered flag was waved.

The one he was worried about though was the caution flag as he admitted after the race.

“Really, those last 20 laps felt like they went on forever,” Hill expressed. “I started thinking, ‘What am I going to do when a caution comes out?’ Am I going to choose the outside or inside lane and how hard do I drive it into the corner on old tires.

“Just a lot of things were going through my head,” he added. “I’m glad we didn’t have to do a green-white-checkered finish, and it just ended as it did,” he said of the final phase of the race.

With his victory, Hill solidified his position as the series leader.

SOURCE- Alan Cavanna- Twitter, NASCAR.com