Stepping Up … Hattori Racing Enterprises (HRE) and Austin Hill will kick off 2020 by stepping up into the NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) and pull double duty at Daytona International Speedway (DIS). Hill will be back behind the wheel of the No. 61 AISIN Group Toyota Supra for the first time since his NXS debut at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) last September. The four-time race winner in the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series will look to add a NXS trophy to his collection to match his hardware from last season’s Gander Trucks triumph.
Double Down … The opening weekend to the 2020 season marks the first time in Hill’s career that he has pulled double duty in a single race weekend. Hill’s NXS debut came last season during an off weekend from his day job in the Gander Trucks Series and resulted in a ninth-place finish at IMS. Hill will kick of HRE’s schedule of selected NXS events in 2020 and marks HRE’s first NXS start at DIS. In his six-career superspeedway starts in the Gander Truck Series, Hill has earned three top-10 finishes, including last year’s DIS victory, and has four finishes of 11th or better. If Hill can pull of a victory in his first NXS start at Daytona, he’d join an exclusive list of drivers that have victories in both the Gander Trucks and NXS.
Chassis Selection … Crew chief Dan Stillman and AISIN Group team will unload chassis No. 146 for Hill’s NXS debut at the “World Center of Racing”. This Toyota Supra is specifically built for superspeedways and will see the green flag for the first time with HRE on Saturday afternoon.
Tune In … FOX Sports will have live coverage of from DIS, beginning with practice sessions on Friday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. ET and 4:30 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1. FS1 will have live coverage of qualifying at 11:00 a.m. ET on Saturday afternoon, followed by the first green flag of the season at 2:30 p.m. ET. Stay updated with Hill and the No. 61 AISIN Group Toyota Supra team by following @Hattori_Racing on Twitter, @hattoriracing on Instagram, and Hattori Racing Enterprises on Facebook.
Austin Hill Quote:On making his second start in the Xfinity Series:“It’s pretty cool to be able to get back in the AISIN Group Supra and have another opportunity in the Xfinity Series. You’re always excited to get back in the car, so to be able to start the year off at Daytona running double duty in both the truck and Xfinity car is going to be a lot of fun. Hopefully we can get our Supra program off to a good start this year. I’d love to get AISIN Group, Shige, and all these guys an Xfinity trophy to go along with the win last year in the truck series. Every person at HRE had a hand in putting this Toyota Supra together in the offseason, and it’d be great to come out of Daytona with a strong run to show off everyone’s hard work.”
HRE PR
