Phoenix Finale Puts a Bow on Hill’s Drive with HRE

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Put a Bow on It … Phoenix Raceway’s season finale for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series marks the final drive for Austin Hill in the No. 16 United Rentals Toyota Tundra. Hill and HRE sit seventh in the Camping World Trucks owners’ point standings and eighth in the driver point standings as the duo looks to put a bow on a superb three-year run. While Hill and the No. 16 team are not in the championship hunt, they have constructed a season worthy of title contention. Hill has earned the third-most points of all drivers in the series and looks to finish his tenure the same way he started, in victory lane.


Proved Them Wrong … Friday’s finale in Phoenix will be the 68th start for Hill at the controls of HRE’s No. 16 Toyota and has outperformed every expectation since joining the organization in 2019. The Winston, Ga. driver immediately continued HRE’s winning pedigree in his first start with the team, by winning at Daytona International Speedway, and has reached the playoffs in each of the last three seasons. In 67 prior starts, HRE and Hill have collected eight victories (11.9%) at seven different racetracks. Hill also displayed remarkable consistency by scoring top-five finishes in 38.8% of his starts (26) and top-10 results in 65.6% of the starts (44) with HRE which contributed to the 2020 regular season title. Crew chief Scott Zipadelli and the HRE team look to cap off their run with Hill by parking in victory lane at their eighth different racetrack on Friday night.


Season to Date … Hill has constructed an outstanding 2021 season, despite the playoff format eliminating him from title contention. He is one of only four full-time drivers with multiple victories, has the fourth-highest average finish (11.2) and has scored the third-most points of all drivers after 21 events (722, 34.38 points per race). His eight top-five’s and 14 top-10 finishes thus far are the third and fourth-highest totals among full-time drivers, respectively.


Chassis Selection … Chassis No. 008 gets the call to bring down the curtain on the 2021 season. Hill most recently drove this Toyota Tundra to a 10th-place finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in September after leading 12 laps and challenging for the win on a late-race restart.


Tune In … Hill and the Camping World Trucks competitors have a full agenda on Friday with practice and qualifying prior to the season finale. FOX Sports 1 will carry live coverage of qualifying at 5:00 p.m. ET followed by the final green flag of the season at 8:00 p.m. ET. Stay connected with the No. 16 United Rentals team by following @Hattori_Racing on Twitter, @hattoriracing on Instagram, and Hattori Racing Enterprises on Facebook.


Austin Hill Quote:On one more start with HRE in the season finale at Phoenix:“I enjoy racing at Phoenix and have enjoyed every minute of the last three seasons driving Toyota Tundras at HRE. I can’t thank all the guys enough for all their work and effort they have put in and we’re all proud of the things we accomplished together. It’s been great to get a win on dirt track and a road course this year, and almost got to victory lane at Martinsville last week. Hopefully we can dial in our United Rentals Tundra during practice and start with some track position on Friday night. We’d love to add a trophy from Phoenix and win at a flat track before it’s over. This entire team has done a great job this year of improving at a lot of different racetracks, and I’d love to have their hard work pay off to go out with a win on Friday.”

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