Austin Hill returns to Daytona International Speedway (DIS) for the second consecutive week, but will tackle the 3.61-mile, 14-turn road course instead of the superspeedway. The driver of the No. 16 SiriusXM Toyota Tundra looks to avenge last week’s kickoff to the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season on DIS’ high banks when a late-race incident handed him a 22nd-place finish. Over his 98-race Camping World Trucks career, Hill has taken a shine to road racing and looks to capture his first-career road course victory on Friday evening.
Road Runner … The revamped Camping World Trucks schedule features four road course events on the 22-race docket, which perfectly suits Hill and the HRE team. Since joining HRE and grabbing the reins of the No. 16 Tundra in 2019, Hill has made two starts on road courses and has notched top-five finishes in both races. He has made three road course starts in his Camping World Trucks career and has finished eighth or better in every event. Last August, Hill delivered a fifth-place performance in the series’ debut on DIS’ road course layout.
Points Info … After the first race of the season, Hill sits tied for 19th in the driver championship standings, but his performance from 2020 points to that being short-lived. Hill led the points standings for 15 of the 16 weeks in the regular season and has all the ingredients to make a rapid charge up the leaderboard. Extending his streak of top-five results on road courses would jump-start his ’21 campaign and aid his quest to claim Camping World’s bonus incentives for the points leader throughout the regular season.
Chassis Selection … Hill will pilot chassis No. 004 for the third time in his tenure at HRE, which is specifically designed for road racing competition. In the two previous starts driving this Toyota Tundra, Hill picked up a pair of fifth place finishes at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in 2019 and the DIS road course last August.
Tune In … The first of four road course races for the tailgaters goes green at 7:30 p.m. ET on Friday night on FOX Sports 1, with coverage beginning at 7:00 p.m. ET with NASCAR Raceday. Stay connected with the HRE team by following @Hattori_Racing on Twitter, @hattoriracing on Instagram, and Hattori Racing Enterprises on Facebook.
Austin Hill Quote:On more road racing and returning to DIS’s road course:“I’d say of all the changes on the schedules this season, I’m most excited to do a lot more road course racing. I’ve always enjoyed the road courses, even going back to the K&N (Pro Series) East days. It’s cool for us to go back and run the Daytona road course again. There are several passing zones each lap to make moves and out-brake people and it put on a good show last season. It’s definitely going to be nicer racing in cooler weather than we did last summer and to race at night. Strategy is always a big key at any road course, so we need to figure out a way to score some points and start digging ourselves our of the little hole that we’re in after last week. I’d love to get a road course win anywhere, but it’d be really special to be able to put SiriusXM in victory lane and be the first team to win on both the oval and road course at Daytona.”
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