Austin Hill will make his debut on the ultra-technical Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL on Saturday afternoon for his third consecutive NASCAR Xfinity Series start. Hill is taking advantage of an off-week for the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series to try his hand at the 2.28-mile ROVAL behind the wheel of the No. 61 AISIN Group, AISIN AW Toyota Supra. The ROVAL marks Hill’s seventh NXS start of the season in the No. 61 Toyota Supra and will be his first road course appearance in the series.
Road Course Ringer … Hill has quickly developed into a potent road racing force in his three prior Gander Trucks road course starts. The two-time Gander Trucks winner this season has made two starts at the 2.5-mile Canadian Tire Motorsports Park (CTMP) and one start earlier this season on Daytona International Speedway’s (DIS) road course configuration. Hill has tallied fifth-place runs at both CTMP and DIS and has finished eighth or better in all three of his Gander Trucks road course starts. He’ll look to parlay those performances into a similar result on Saturday afternoon in his NXS road course debut.
Season to Date … The Winston, Ga. product has made seven NXS starts this season, with a best finish of ninth at Darlington Raceway in September. Last week at Talladega Superspeedway, Hill’s third Gander Trucks stage win of the season vaulted him back into a tie for the championship point lead as Round 2 begins on October 17th at Kansas Speedway. Hill has accumulated two victories, nine top-five, and fifteen top-10 finishes in 19 races this season.
Tune In … Coverage of Hill’s NXS road course debut at the CMS ROVAL will begin at 3:00 p.m. ET with Countdown to Green on NBC and will be immediately followed by the green flag at 3:30 p.m. ET. Stay updated with Hill and the No. 61 AISIN Group, AISIN AW team by following @Hattori_Racing on Twitter, Hattori Racing Enterprises on Facebook, and @hattoriracing on Instagram.
Austin Hill Quote:On making his first NXS road course start:“I love road course racing. I honestly wish we had more of them in the truck series, so it’s cool to have the chance to run one in the Xfinity Series this week. The ROVAL is so much different from the Daytona road course that we ran earlier this year and from Canada too. It’s not a very forgiving racetrack and small mistakes can have big consequences since there isn’t much run-off room in most parts of the racetrack. It’ll be a big challenge, but I’m really looking forward to getting the chance to run it with our AISIN Group, AISIN AW Toyota Supra. Starting the race without practice will be a tall task, and depending on what weather conditions we have, it could be an even bigger challenge. Hopefully we can feel things out over the first stage, get our marks down, and be able to be in contention for a good finish at the end of the day.”
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