The NASCAR Xfinity Series arrived at Atlanta Motor Speedway with a feeling of inevitably after [autotag]Austin Hill[/autotag] won the opening race of the season at Daytona International Speedway. Despite the late-race drama, plus a lack of speed, he put himself in position again. Hill beat Chandler Smith to win the Xfinity Series race at Atlanta in overtime after teammate Jesse Love ran out of fuel.
Love dominated the race at Atlanta but ran out of fuel on the final restart. Hill was pushed to the front by Smith, who held the No. 81 car behind him. The Richard Childress Racing driver had enough fuel to win and perform a burnout on the front stretch. Hill said in his post-race interview that Love should have won the race after he won the first two stages.
JESSE LOVE OUT OF FUEL. BACK-TO-BACK WINS FOR AUSTIN HILL.
Watch the full overtime finish below. https://t.co/bQTQQmCmrA pic.twitter.com/UunqMowbrV
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) February 25, 2024
Yet, Hill found a way through the drama. After winning Atlanta, Hill became the first driver since Tony Stewart in 2008 to win back-to-back races to open an Xfinity Series season. The next time the series heads to a superspeedway race, that same inevitability will be felt again.
RAPTOR King of Tough 250 finishing order:
- No. 21 Austin Hill
- No. 81 Chandler Smith
- No. 97 Shane van Gisbergen
- No. 18 Sheldon Creed
- No. 31 Parker Retzlaff
- No. 51 Jeremy Clements
- No. 5 Anthony Alfredo
- No. 26 Jeffrey Earnhardt
- No. 19 Ryan Truex
- No. 8 Sammy Smith
- No. 1 Sam Mayer
- No. 2 Jesse Love
- No. 16 A.J. Allmendinger
- No. 9 Brandon Jones
- No. 98 Riley Herbst
- No. 00 Cole Custer
- No. 91 Kyle Weatherman
- No. 78 B.J. McLeod
- No. 48 Parker Kligerman
- No. 44 Brennan Poole
- No. 42 Leland Honeyman
- No. 39 Ryan Sieg
- No. 27 Jeb Burton
- No. 14 J.J. Yeley
- No. 43 Ryan Ellis
- No. 92 Nick Leitz
- No. 15 Hailie Deegan
- No. 7 Justin Allgaier
- No. 35 Joey Gase
- No. 29 Blaine Perkins
- No. 4 Dawson Cram
- No. 20 John Hunter Nemechek
- No. 07 Patrick Emerling
- No. 6 Garrett Smithley
- No. 38 C.J. McLaughlin
- No. 28 Kyle Sieg
- No. 11 Josh Williams
- No. 32 Jordan Anderson