HILL’S DOVER WINS
A Building Block For Rising Star By Josh Weinrich HRE Public Relations There are no flukes at the “Monster Mile.” Several tracks on NASCAR’s three national tour schedules invite surprise winners or underdogs, but Dover International Speedway isn’t one of them. Each win is authentically earned, and that’s why Austin Hill cherishes his Dover trophies. In Hill’s circumstance, the Monster Mile triumphs served as a launching pad for his career, which has led him to nearly instant success in his current seat at Hattori Racing Enterprises. The races that mean the most to win are at the tracks that require the most effort and talent from competitors. Of the all the venues across NASCAR, Dover is arguably at the top of that list. From day one, Hill has taken a liking to the Delaware track’s high banks. “Dover is easily my favorite racetrack,” Hill said. “Just something about it always clicked with me from the first time we went there. There’s a ton of speed. Things happen in a hurry and it demands everything you have as a driver.” Hill broke onto the NASCAR landscape in 2012 with his family-owned race team in the ARCA Menards Series East after moving up from the regional late model ranks. In September 2013, Hill showed 94
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the NASCAR world the first glimpse of the talent that’s now on display in the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series and put on a clinic in his first Dover appearance. The Georgia native bested the 30car field full of multi-car powerhouse teams with his tight-knit family operation for his first career NASCAR victory in the “Drive Sober 150.” The win propelled him into the NASCAR Next program, and he successfully defended his crown at Dover in 2014 by winning again in the “Drive Sober 150,” proving that his first conquering of Miles the Monster was no fluke. “Those wins at Dover were so huge, especially that first one,” Hill said. “We had just started our own team in the East series. My dad helped me with it, but it was only up to us. We had some good help, and it was a huge relief to get that win and prove to ourselves that we could do it. “A lot of weekends I’d drive the hauler to the track myself and going to all these different racetracks for the first time was a big-time challenge. I just liked Dover right from the start and it fit my driving style.” After a successful tenure in the ARCA Menards Series East, earning five victories in just 39 starts, Hill stepped up his family operation into the Truck Series in 2016. The family team navigated the competitive
waters of the national tours for the next two seasons before Hill transitioned to a full-time schedule in 2018. A season’s worth of experience helped Hill take advantage of his biggest opportunity to date last season, hopping in HRE’s championship-caliber No. 16 Toyota. The critics barely gave Hill a chance, but his first start with HRE yielded the biggest prize that the Truck Series has to offer, a victory at Daytona International Speedway. The monumental triumph once again solidified the potency of HRE and showed the rest of the Truck garage that Hill possessed all the necessary tools to execute and win races against the best in the series. “Daytona was really special,” Hill said. “I never thought my first [Truck] win would come at a superspeedway. We had a really, really strong truck that night and everything just fell our way. This team was always used to executing and I knew I had to do all the little things right to win that night. Things like restarts, not sliding the tires on pit road, and all those details kept us in contention and towards the front of the field. I had all the faith in the world in our guys, but we all knew we could do more the rest of the year after that.” Hill did do more -- a lot more. He captured his first two pole awards in track record fashion during the heat of the summer, bookended the regular season with a victory at Michigan International Speed-
way, and made plenty of noise in his first playoff appearance. He advanced to round two of the playoffs courtesy of a win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and closed the season with a thoroughly dominant performance in the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Hill’s four-win campaign was a statement that he will be one of the biggest threats in 2020. “We have plenty to build on this season,” Hill said. “We were so close on making the Championship Four last fall, and we know the couple areas and details we need to clean up to take that final step this year. I feel like our whole team is even better than we were at this time last year and we only have one goal for ourselves and that’s to win a championship.” Hill’s road to the Championship 4 makes a pivotal stop at Dover and he still has plenty to prove. Just like his two previous wins at the Monster Mile showed he had the talent to propel his career into the national series, Hill hopes a Truck win at Dover carries him to a shot at his first championship. D O V E R I N T E R N AT I O N A L S P E E D W AY
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