Austin Hill scores his fourth victory at Daytona in five races

Austin Hill won again at Daytona International Speedway. The Richard Childress Racing driver took the United Rentals 300 this Saturday, the season opener for the 2026 NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series, securing his fourth victory in this event in the last five years, confirming his dominance on this 2.5-mile oval.

The race was decided in the closing meters with multiple restarts and constant position changes, as is typical on superspeedways. Hill led 78 of the 120 laps from the pole position and had to defend on three restarts in the final 12 laps to hold off Justin Allgaier, who finished second in a battle decided by inches.

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With this result, Richard Childress Racing achieves its fifth consecutive victory in the United Rentals 300, tying the record set by Dale Earnhardt Inc. between 1990 and 1994, a statistic few organizations can boast in any NASCAR race.

A green-flag stop mid-race dropped Hill to 12th place, far from the front and in a tough spot to recover, but fresh tires and his ability to use the middle lane when other drivers couldn't find space allowed him to return to the battle for the win. On the final restart with two laps to go, he blocked Allgaier in a move that nearly cost him control of the car, although he managed to maintain his line and accelerate to the checkered flag.

Jesse Love, Hill's teammate at RCR, led 27 laps and showed competitive pace throughout the night, but a series of aggressive moves in the final laps took him out of contention and he finished ninth. "I'm a step behind Austin," Love admitted in his pit road interview. "He's excellent at these types of races. I think he's more patient than I am right now, and that's my learning lesson."

Love acknowledged that trying to pass three-wide against Sammy Smith was probably not the right move, especially when Hill chose to wait for the precise moment to attack instead of forcing moves that could cost him the win.

It's the 15th win of Hill's career in the series, 11 of them on drafting tracks.

Allgaier had a chaotic night and was involved in several incidents but managed to stay near the front until the end to finish second, his best result in this race since 2022. "If I were a cat, I think I used up my nine lives," he joked.

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Ryan Sieg finished third after being involved in a mid-race incident, followed by Jordan Anderson and Sammy Smith rounding out the top five. The first 20 positions were occupied by Chevrolets.

The next race will be next Saturday at Atlanta Motor Speedway, where Hill has won five of the last seven races.