Toyota Racing – Austin Hill
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Quotes
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (April 29, 2021) – Hattori Racing Enterprises driver Austin Hill was made available to media via videoconference prior to the Kansas race earlier today:
AUSTIN HILL, No. 16 Gunma Toyopet Toyota Tundra, Hattori Racing Enterprises
What is your comfort level with Kansas Speedway?
“Kansas is just one of those racetracks from the first time that I was there I just found myself getting around the place pretty good. I had really good speed and ever since I’ve been with Hattori Racing out Toyota Tundras have been really fast there. I feel like setup-wise; Scott (Zipadelli, crew chief) and the guys have a really good setup there and it works for me and other than that, I always love tracks that are worn out, that you can move around, you can run the bottom, you can run the middle, you can run the top. I’m more of a bottom-feeder, but at the same time, I’m able to move around the racetrack, make things happen and actually, the first race at Kansas that we won I actually was running the top, so it just makes it so it’s in the driver’s hands. You can move around, a lot of maneuverability. It’s just a really fun racetrack to race at. You can race each other really hard. Tire wear is big, so really don’t want to kill the right front or the right rear. It’s just something that I’ve done really well at and if you look at my stats at all of the racetracks where the race surface is worn out, we always to have really good long-run Tundras, so I think it goes back to the guys in the shop giving me some really fast Toyota Tundras to drive.”
How are the restarts like at Kansas Speedway?
“The restarts there are crucial. Track position is key in the Truck Series and especially at a place like Kansas. If you can get out front and get in the clean air, I feel like you have the advantage. Restarts are really big. It seems like Kansas is one of those places where a guy will kind of give you the bottom sometimes and if they do give you the bottom, sometimes you don’t always want to take it just because you could possibly get bound up on the bottom and the grip is not as much there, especially on late race restarts when you have laps on your tires. It seems like tire spin is really big. It seems like if you can, you want to get to the outside of somebody and get on their right rear corner and kind of suck them back and get that top lane rolling. It seems like that’s been best for me and what has worked for me in the past. There are still things that I can do better on restarts, but that is kind of something that has worked for me in the past and has kind of gotten us to finish up at the front like we have at all of these Kansas races.”
What did you have to learn about Kansas?
“I just think that something about that racetrack clicked for me from the first time I went on the track to practice. It seemed like I found pretty good speed. It just seemed like I could get around the place pretty well. The biggest thing for me that I had to learn was I had to learn different lines throughout a run. It seemed like I would stay on the bottom a lot and really want to wrap the bottom and stay on that white line. I had to kind of learn to move up the racetrack and when to move up the racetrack. I don’t want to move up to early, but at the same time you don’t want to move up too late. I kind of think that is something that I’ve done fairly decent at, especially last year with all of the times that we went to Kansas. If the truck is not really working for us, just be able to move around, find different lines, find different things that work for our Tundra, and then when we come down pit road, we can adjust on it and make it better. That way we can start running the bottom again or the middle or the top or whatever. Kansas is just one of those places that you need a truck that can move all over the racetrack and run different lines and for whatever reason, I’ve been able to do that, especially this last couple years.”
What has made Toyota so good in the Truck Series season?
“One of the things is we have more Toyota Tundras on the racetrack this year, that obviously helps. I just think that Toyota Racing, TRD (Toyota Racing Development), everybody back at Toyota – they are putting a lot of work into this season. They’ve put in a lot of work in years’ past, but this season it seems like there is a lot going on with things that I’ve been doing this year. We just have a lot of stuff going on this season it seems like. They are really trying to take Toyota to the next level. I’m glad to be a Toyota driver and us being undefeated is cool and all, but at the same time, I want to win too. Hopefully, we can put our name on that list of being a Toyota driver that gets another win and hopefully it happens at Kansas. Kansas is one of my best racetracks statistically, so hopefully we can go there and keep that momentum rolling with Toyota and we can finally get a win and get in that win column with all of the other Toyota drivers.”
Kyle Busch Motorsports has won the last four races. What’s the main key on trying to beat them?
“Just throughout the race being a little bit better. Just maybe being a little more aggressive with what I say on the radio to give Scott (Zipadelli, crew chief) the information he needs to make the adjustments that we need to be that much better. I feel like Tundra to Tundra wise, truck to truck, I feel like we are just as good as KBM (Kyle Busch Motorsports). It’s just fine tuning it a little bit at the end of the race to be that much better. There are things that we’ve been wanting to be a little bit better at and there’s things that we’ve touched up on that we want to improve on to give us a little more drive ability in the Tundras. I think that’s the biggest thing for us. When it comes down to the end of the race, just being able to make that extra little adjustment that makes us that much better that way we can go out there and outrun them.”
Looking ahead to Darlington, have you thought about a Playoff race could go there if the race in Canada gets cancelled?
“I don’t think it’s really going to change how we look at Darlington. We are still going to go there with the setup that we feel like we are confident that we can win with. Maybe after the race, if we feel like there is something that we needed to be better at, that we could improve on, we will obviously look at that. If it’s a track that we could possibly go back to, then the debriefing might be a little more in depth.- like if we come back here later in the year, what is the track going to look like, what are the track conditions possibly going to look like, stuff like that – just see what we can do to maybe be a little bit better. Darlington was a track that we were pretty good at last year. We needed to be a little bit better to win the race, but we felt like we were really good on the long run, we just needed to be a little bit better on the short run, so that is one of the key things we are going to work on this Darlington and see where it goes. I’d love to run Darlington again if we can. It’s one of those fun racetracks that we get to go to.”
Do you have any plans to run any Xfinity races this season?
“We are planning on running a few Xfinity races. I don’t know the number yet. I don’t really know exactly when the first one is going to be. We are going to run here, hopefully, in the next couple of months. We are planning on running a handful of them. I don’t know the number yet. It is probably going to be out of the HRE (Hattori Racing Enterprises) stable, which is awesome. I think I’m going to end up having Scott (Zipadelli, crew chief) and a lot of the guys from the truck side of it coming over to the Xfinity side to help with that, which is going to be cool. Just to be able to work with the same guys, we know the lingo we have with each other, we know what we need to say on the radio to make the right changes. I think we can run up front in the Xfinity Series. I think we can really compete and run inside the top-10 and potentially top-five. We actually did it last year I think it was at Kansas actually, running up front. We are capable of doing it, and hopefully, whenever we go out there for our first weekend, we can run up front and have a good showing.”
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