By Phillip Prichard, MSA:
Austin Hill of Douglasville, Georgia is an up and coming star in NASCAR. Austin finished 3rd in the K & N East series in 2015, winning at New Smyrna Speedway and Richmond Motor Speedway. This was his second full-time season in the K & N Series. He started in 2012 in the K & N Series with 1 win in 2013, 2 wins in 2014 and 2 wins in 2015. He has 13 top five finishes along with 23 top ten finishes.
The 21-year old racer has been racing since he was 6 years old. He started racing quarter midgets in Cumming, GA and then moved on to Bandoleros and Legends cars. He came in third in his first race and that hooked him on racing. He raced the Bandoleros and Legends cars at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Charlotte Motor Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway ad many national events. He won championship titles in the quarter midgets, Bandoleros and Legends Series. Then he moved up to asphalt Late Models, racing about 15 events. He, also, has raced a half dozen Dirt Crate Late Model races. He has a Shane Clanton prepared Rocket chassis that he plans to race more in the future.
In 2014 and 2015, Austin competed in a limited number of Camping World Truck Series races. Two starts in 2014 with 21 laps lead and four starts in 2015, with an average finish of 21st. He drives the Number 82 truck for Empire Racing Group with an alliance with Grumpy’s Performance Inc. Mike “Grumpy” Cheek is his truck crew chief. He assisted ”Bubba” Wallace Jr when his truck career began.
When he is not racing, he is working in the race shop in Mooresville, North Carolina. He has relocated to Mooresville to be near the shop. Austin and his wife, Ashland and their three dogs reside in North Carolina. In his spare time, he likes to play basketball and going hunting with his family in Georgia.
Austin stated, “I live and breathe racing, that’s all I ever want to do.” Hopefully, I can get up to the Sprint Cup level. Even if I don’t make it to the Cup level, I think I’ll be working on race cars for the rest of my life”.
Austin is a member of the NASCAR NEXT class for the second year, which is a group of select up- and-coming drivers who are believed to be the future of the sport.
Check out http://www.austinhillracing.com/ for more information on Austin.