Hill Avoids Final-Turn Chaos For Martinsville Xfinity Win

MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Seventeen months ago, Austin Hill lost a race at Martinsville Speedway after being crashed in the final corner from the lead. Saturday night, the pendulum swung back the other way.

After taking the white flag in overtime in sixth place, Hill snuck through a multi-car melee in turn four sparked after Sammy Smith overdrove the corner to get to Taylor Gray’s bumper in a bid for the win.

Gray spun up the racetrack, Smith got together with his JR Motorsports teammate Justin Allgaier after that before getting turned from behind, and Hill drove away from the crashing around him to the checkered flag and his second NASCAR Xfinity Series win of the year.

Appropriate considering he came out of nowhere at the end, Hill led only one lap of the Marine Corps 250 – the final one.

“I chose the bottom because of how rough everybody was on restarts,” said Hill, who won for the first time on a short track in the Xfinity Series. “I had to do what I had to do on the last lap. On that restart, it just got wild. We were definitely leaning on each other, and getting into (turn) three, I knew we were all going to get beating and banging, and I just drove it in as deep as I could.

“The all hit each other, and I hit the 7 (Allgaier) a little bit and dumped him off and got on the apron there and came home with the win,” he added. “I’m in disbelief that we’re in Victory Lane right now. It’s unbelievable.”

Not only was it the 12th career win for Hill, it was also the 100th Xfinity Series victory for Richard Childress Racing as an organization since debuting at NASCAR’s second highest level back in 1995.

“That part is really special,” Hill noted. “Richard [Childress] has done so much for my career and it’s been an honor to race for him in this series. To be the one to give him a milestone like 100 [wins] is something I’ll take a lot of pride in for our team.”

In addition to the grandfather clock trophy, Hill also banked a $100,000 bonus as the highest finishing Dash 4 Cash-eligible driver. Saturday was the second of four races in this year’s bonus program.

The shoving match that led to the last-turn calamity actually started during a restart with two laps left in regulation when, running second at the time, Smith chose to line up on the bottom behind Gray for the dash toward the finish.

Smith then stayed planted on the back of Gray’s Toyota all the way down the frontstretch, pushing Gray firmly up toward the outside in turn two and pulling alongside to race for the lead approaching the white flag.

However, the battle was put on pause after Matt DiBenedetto spun and couldn’t get going behind the leaders, bringing out the 14th and final caution in a crash-filled and attrition-marred affair.

At that point, Smith was shown as the leader and control car for the race-defining run to the checkers.

On the final choose, Gray lined up directly behind Smith, with Brandon Jones taking the outside of the front row and Justin Allgaier slotting in behind Jones as the best of the four Dash 4 Cash runners at the restart.

The green flag waved and Gray immediately repaid the shove that Smith had given him on lap 199, getting to the inside of the JR Motorsports Chevrolet and forcing his way back to the lead.

Gray took the white flag in front, then actually cleared to the top spot off turn two on the final lap before Smith sailed off into turn three in a desperation attempt to get back to Gray for the win.

First came the contact, then came Gray’s spin, and then pure mayhem broke out after that as cars pinballed off one another trying to get back to the finish line in one piece.

Like Hill, Creed stayed against the inside curb and got past the turn-four fireworks, but couldn’t get enough traction on corner exit to challenge the eventual winner and crossed .190 seconds back as the runner-up.

It marked the 14th time Creed has finished second in the Xfinity Series, extending his own record for the most runner-ups without a victory in NASCAR’s second-tier division.

Allgaier, who’d won the last two races prior to Martinsville, finished third in his attempt at a three-peat. Brennan Poole was fourth in the best-ever finish for Alpha Prime Racing as an organization, with Sam Mayer rallying from a lap-154 incident with Carson Kvapil for fifth place.

Dean Thompson earned a career-best sixth, with Daniel Dye, Ryan Sieg, and Kris Wright rounding out the top nine finishers.

Smith was scored 10th, crashing across the finish line after spinning into traffic roughly 100 yards from the start-finish line. He was unapologetic after being checked and released from the infield care center.

“Absolutely, [his move on the last lap] was egregious,” Smith said. “I’m not proud of it, but if the roles were reversed he’d do the same thing to me. … I’m not proud, but you absolutely have to do that here [to win].”

Gray got looped back around after the rest of the field had streamed past and was credited with 29th, the final car on the lead lap after going into turn three on the final lap in the driver’s seat for a win.

He was understandably dejected and frustrated after leading 87 laps, second most among all drivers.

“I feel like we had the best car all day, and I can’t thank everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing enough for that,” said Gray. “We brought a really fast Operation 300 Toyota GR Supra. It’s just unfortunate – it’s the same story I’ve lived here for the past two Martinsville races in a row.

“It sucks, but it is what it is. There’s a long year ahead of us still.”

Rookie sensation Connor Zilisch started from the pole, won both stages, and led a race-high 100 laps despite getting damage from a lap-81 incident where he got into the back of then-leader Brandon Jones as the pair tried to avoid the spinning car of Garrett Smithley on the frontstretch.

Zilisch then got shuffled into the mid-pack later on due to pit strategy before being collected in several late incidents. He finished just ahead of Gray in 28th.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series heads next to Darlington (S.C.) Raceway as part of NASCAR’s annual throwback weekend. Coverage of the Sport Clips Haircuts/VFW-Help a Hero 200 is slated for April 5 at 3:30 p.m. ET, live on The CW, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.