Make Some Noise in Music City … Austin Hill looks to make some noise in “Music City” as he will tackle his first “double duty” weekend this season. The driver of the No. 61 AISIN Toyota Supra is making his first start in the NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) in 2021 on Saturday afternoon at Nashville Superspeedway (NSS). Saturday’s first NXS event at NSS in 10 years marks the first of six scheduled starts for Hill this season. The Winston, Ga. native will get his first laps on the 1.33-mile concrete trioval during Friday’s Camping World Truck Series event and looks to build on his best career fifth-place finish from last October at Kansas Speedway.
Man With a Plan … Hill will tackle four oval tracks (NSS, Pocono Raceway, Michigan International Speedway, and Texas Motor Speedway) and two road courses (Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Charlotte Motor Speedway) on his NXS docket. Last season saw Hill post two top-10 finishes to establish HRE’s NXS program. He tied his previous best-career finish of ninth at Darlington Raceway and elevated that mark with his first career top-five at Kansas.
Season to Date … On the Camping World Trucks side of the garage, Hill has collected four top-five and eight top-10 finishes as the season recently crossed the halfway point with 11 of 22 events completed. Hill holds the third spot in the championship standings with four races remaining before the playoffs and has an average finish of 10.6. He bolstered his NXS stat line in nine appearances last season with a pair of top-10 results.
Chassis Selection … Crew chief Dave McCarty and the AISIN team have prepared chassis No. 003 for Saturday’s 250-miler. Hill most recently raced this chassis at Texas Motor Speedway last October and scored a ninth-place finish in this Supra last September at Darlington.
Tune In … NBC Sports Network kicks off their 2021 NASCAR coverage with NXS practice on Friday at 4:00 p.m. ET. NBCSN will also carry coverage of qualifying on Saturday at 12:35 p.m. ET and the green flag at 3:30 p.m. ET. Stay connected with the No. 61 AISIN team team by following @Hattori_Racing on Twitter, @hattoriracing on Instagram, and Hattori Racing Enterprises on Facebook.
Austin Hill Quote:On making his first NXS start of the year at Nashville:“I really enjoyed running our Supra in the Xfinity Series as much as we did last year, so to have six races on our schedule this season is exciting for all of us. We were able to get a top-five run for AISIN last week at Texas in the truck, so hopefully we can have another solid run this week in our AISIN Toyota Supra. Having a race under our belt on Friday in the truck should pay off for the Xfinity race on Saturday. Nashville is a place that will be new to a lot of drivers, so the extra laps throughout the weekend will be a big help. We had a couple really strong runs last fall with this program, so it’d be great to carry on that momentum at Nashville.”
HRE PR
