Austin Hill’s road course debut in the NASCAR Xfinity Series was short-lived on Saturday afternoon at the Charlotte Motor Speedway (CMS) ROVAL in extreme wet conditions and was credited with a 36th-place finish. The driver of the No. 61 AISIN Group, AISIN AW Toyota Supra had finishes of eighth or better in his all three of his NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series, but his hopes of a similar finish on Saturday were washed away in the wet track conditions.
The Winston, Ga. native began the afternoon from 27th in dry conditions, but the rains moved in during a caution period on lap two. The AISIN Group, AISIN AW team put rain tires on Hill’s Supra under the yellow and would begin his first wet-weather experience in a stock car. After restarting outside the top-25, Hill quickly advanced as far as 22nd before a deluge engulfed the CMS ROVAL. On lap 14, two of the race leaders spun off course in Turn 5 as the rain increased, and Hill fell victim to the same fate. His Toyota Supra made significant contact with the tire barrier and incurred additional damage as other cars behind him spun in the same area. He was scored in 36th position after completing 13 laps in Stage 1.
Austin Hill Quote:
“We were taking it easy at the start just to get a feel for everything having never run here before. This place is really challenging to begin with, but when the rain moved in it just made it that much more treacherous. We had a bit of a vibration to start, but there were quite a few other guys that went off course in the same corner and just turned into a parking lot and unfortunately, we got caught up in it. I hate it for everyone that put our AISIN Group, AISIN AW Supra together. We’ll regroup and go on to Kansas next week.”
