Austin Hill found himself in the right position at the right time. During the race-concluding caution on the final lap and a three-wide action for the lead involving teammate Jesse Love and Jeb Burton to win the Ag-Pro 300 at Talladega Superspeedway on Saturday, April 26.
The 31-year-old Hill from Winston, Georgia, led twice for 19 of 113-scheduled laps in an event where he started on the front row alongside his Richard Childress Racing (RCR) teammate Jesse Love and raced upfront a majority of the event. Amid the draft while battling both with Love and his fellow competitors, Austin Hill settled in the runner-up spot behind Love at the conclusion of the first stage period before he led for the first time on Lap 44, the latter of which enabled him to proceed and win the second stage period.
Through a late green-flag pit strategy and two cautions for two multi-car wrecks under the final 40 laps, Austin Hill kept his No. 21 RCR Chevrolet entry intact and jostling for the lead. Despite losing the lead at the start of a six-lap shootout, he used Love to draft his way back to the front before the final lap.
Then after Love sent the leader Connor Zilisch spinning and wrecking on the backstretch on the final lap, Austin Hill used the momentum to draw even with Love from the outside lane as Jeb Burton also went underneath Love. This brought out a caution that concluded the event. NASCAR officials then determined who was leading at the time of the caution.
NASCAR ruled that Hill was in front of both Burton and Love, adding another superspeedway venue to his racing résumé.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, April 25, Jesse Love notched his seventh Xfinity Series career pole position and the second of the 2025 campaign with a pole-winning lap at 182.240 mph in 52.546 seconds. Joining Love on the front row was teammate Austin Hill, the latter of whom clocked in his best qualifying lap at 181.591 mph in 52.734 seconds.
Prior to the event, the following names that included Anthony Alfredo, Brennan Poole and Caesar Bacarella dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries.
When the green flag waved and the race started, pole-sitter Jesse Love, who opted to start on the outside lane, quicky transitioned his No. 2 WAT Chevrolet Camaro entry to the inside lane in front of teammate Austin Hill as both led the field through the first two turns and the backstretch. With the inside lane led by Love gaining an early advantage through the backstretch, Love proceeded to lead the first lap over Hill as Justin Allgaier and Joey Gase followed suit in single-line formation. Behind, a bevy of competitors racing in two-wide formation led by Jeb Burton and rookie Taylor Gray followed suit.
Just past the first five laps of the event, Love, who was on early defensive mode by transitioning between the outside and inside lanes to maintain the draft and remain out in front, was leading over Allgaier, Gray, rookie Daniel Dye and Hill while Brandon Jones, Joey Gase, rookie William Sawalich, Jeb Burton and rookie Connor Zilisch were scored in the top 10. Love would proceed to lead through the Lap 10 mark as a majority of the front-runners migrated to a long single-line formation behind Love towards the inside lane.
At the Lap 15 mark, the field fanned out to two-packed lanes as the leader Love was on defensive mode to keep both Allgaier and Hill behind him. The field then fanned out to multiple lanes exiting the backstretch and through the frontstretch as Dye led the inside lane and Allgaier was trying to gain drafting help from teammate Carson Kvapil from the middle lane. Meanwhile, Hill ignited a charge from the outside lane while being pushed by Jeb Burton while Love led the following lap.
Then on Lap 18, Nick Sanchez, who got underneath Love through Turns 3 and 4, dueled even with Love for the lead through the frontstretch. Love would then regain his momentum from the outside lane as he had teammate Hill and a majority of competitors drafting him while Sanchez kept leading the inside lane. With Sanchez having Allgaier drafting him, a majority of the field would migrate to the outside lane. The front-runners then transitioned to the inside lane by Lap 14 as Love retained the lead over Hill, Jeb Burton, Custer, Ryan Sieg and Gray.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 25, Love fended off the field that had fanned out to three lanes during the previous lap to capture his first Xfinity stage victory of the 2025 season. Hill, who got alongside teammate Love and nearly snatched the lead amid his challenge from the backstretch to the frontstretch, settled in second place while Creed, Eckes, Sanchez, Ryan Sieg, Josh Williams, Nick Sanchez, Harrison Burton, Justin Allgaier and Jeb Burton were scored in the top 10, respectively.
Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Love pitted for a first round of pit service. Following the pit stops as mixed strategies ensued, Love edged Eckes off of pit road first and they were followed by Sanchez, Allgaier, Leland Honeyman Jr., Hill, Williams, Zilisch, Dye and Ryan Sieg, respectively. Not long after, Honeyman would pit for left-side tires, which moved Hill up into the top-five mark. In addition, Gray would be sent to the rear of the field due to an uncontrolled tire violation. By then, Parker Retzlaff, who made an early unscheduled pit stop to address a flat left-rear tire, took his No. 4 KeenParts.com Chevrolet Camaro entry to the garage due to a brake issue.
The second stage period started on Lap 31 as Love and Sanchez occupied the front row. At the start, both Love and Sanchez briefly muscled ahead of the pack as they were being drafted by Eckes and Allgaier, respectively, through the first two turns. Love then settled behind Sanchez through the backstretch before Eckes ignited a charge from the inside lane. As the field entered the backstretch, Sanchez was both pinned and shoved out of the draft in the middle lane as Eckes, who got underneath Sanchez, led the following lap over a hard-charging Love. Love would then return to the lead during the following lap as he was drafted by Allgaier through the first two turns and the backstretch.
At the Lap 35 mark, the field fanned out to three-stacked lanes as Sammy Smith went underneath Love to lead a lap for himself. Both Love and Smith would duel for the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch before Smith muscled his No. 8 Pilot Chevrolet Camaro entry ahead entering Turns 3 and 4.
Love then steered his No. 2 WAT Chevrolet Camaro entry to the bottom of the track through the frontstretch and lead the following lap despite having no drafting help. With Love getting shuffled from the lead from the middle lane, both Jeb Burton and Eckes charged to the front amid a tight three-wide formation within the pack. This enabled Eckes to lead the next lap from the inside lane while being drafting from Hill. By then, Burton led the middle lane while Sammy Smith led the outside lane towards the wall.
Through the Lap 40 mark, Jeb Burton, who assumed the lead two laps earlier, was leading the field as he had Sammy Smith, Allgaier, Hill, Love and Eckes all trailing him in close formation within the draft. Hill would get behind Burton before he got beneath the latter and led the Lap 44 mark. Love, Eckes and Ryan Sieg would make their way into the top-five mark over the following lap while Burton fell back to sixth and he would proceed to drop out of the top-10 mark towards Lap 46 after he got shuffled out of the draft.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 50, Hill, who had been leading since Lap 44, fended off the field that had fanned out to three lanes to capture his fifth Xfinity stage victory of the 2025 season. Teammate Love edged Aric Almirola to settle in second while Sanchez, Sammy Smith, Zilisch, Jeb Burton, Allgaier, William Sawalich and Harrison Burton were scored in the top 10, respectively. By then, the event had featured nine lead changes with six different competitors leading at least a lap.
During the stage break, the lead lap field led by Hill returned to pit road for a second round of pit service. Following the pit stops, Love exited pit road first and he was followed by Hill, Almirola, Sawalich, Gray, Sammy Smith, Mayer, Harrison Burton, Brandon Jones and Creed, respectively.
With 57 laps remaining, which marked the halfway point of the event, the final stage period commenced as Love and Almirola occupied the front row. At the start, Love received a push from teammate Hill on the inside lane to muscle ahead of Almirola through the first two turns. The field would then quickly fan out to three lanes through the backstretch while Love, who led a six-car breakaway from the inside lane, led the following lap.
With 50 laps remaining and the field fanned out to two-stacked lanes, Love, who led since the start of the final stage period, continued to lead over teammate Hill, Sammy Smith, Jones and Matt DiBenedetto while Zilisch, Almirola, Jeb Burton, Sawalich and Jeffrey Earnhardt were scored in the top 10 over Gray, Kvapil, Honeyman, Sheldon Creed and Harrison Burton, respectively. Meanwhile, Allgaier was mired in 17th, Sanchez was down in 23rd and Katherine Legge was racing in 27th.
Then with 45 laps remaining, pit strategies ensued as select names led by Love and including Hill, Jeb Burton, Dye, Eckes, Josh Williams, Blaine Perkins, Sanchez and Anthony Alfredo pitted under green. Amid their pit stops, Brandon Jones cycled into the lead as he was being pursued by DiBenedetto, Almirola, Sawalich, Sammy Smith, Gray and more. More names that included DiBenedetto, Sammy Smith, Zilisch, Joey Gase, Kvapil and Allgaier would pit two laps later while Jones, who was among many who have yet to pit, continued to lead.
Down to the final 40 laps of the event, the top-17 competitors were racing within three seconds of one another as Jones led ahead of his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota teammates Almirola, Sawalich and Gray. Rookie Dean Thompson, Creed, Harrison Burton, Ryan Sieg, Mayer and Jeffrey Earnhardt would follow suit in the top 10, respectively, before they all pitted during the following lap.
In the process, Jeremy Clements, who was among six competitors that had not yet pitted, remained on the track before pitting for the following lap. By then, Mason Maggio, Brennan Poole, Jesse Iwuji and Ryan Ellis also pitted their respective entries while Katherine Legge, who did not pit with the group, led a lap for herself with 38 laps remaining. Amid the pit stops, Maggio and Ellis were all penalized for speeding on pit road.
Once Legge pitted under green with 38 laps remaining, Greg Van Alst was the lone competitor out in front while a steaming pack of the lead lap group led by Almirola, Jones, Creed, Gray, Love and Thompson followed suit. The pack would catch up to Van Alst and overtake him as Jones returned to the lead with 36 laps remaining.
Then with 35 laps remaining, the caution flew when Sammy Smith, who was racing in the middle of the pack, got clipped by Jeb Burton, spun and collected Van Alst in Turn 1. In the process, Ryan Sieg was bumped by Blaine Perkins and he got sideways below the apron, spun and sustained heavy front-nose damage after he clipped the infield grass. Jeb Burton would then hit the outside wall despite dodging the carnage involving Smith and Van Alst. By then, Sawalich, who had fallen off the pace, was on pit road to address an engine issue while Creed was leading ahead of Jones, Love, Almirola, Harrison Burton, Gray, Sanchez, DiBenedetto, Mayer and Allgaier.
During the caution period, Eckes pitted to have a reported belt issue diagnosed to his No. 16 LeafFilter Chevrolet Camaro entry. Meanwhile, the rest of the field led by Creed remained on the track while select names that included Josh Williams, Jeb Burton and Sammy Smith pitted. More names that included Mayer, Poole, Clements, Alfredo, Jesse Iwuji, Legge, Joey Gase, Ryan Ellis and Mason Maggio would also pit during the caution period while the rest led by Creed remained on the track.
Down to the final 28 laps, the event restarted under green. At the start, Creed and Jones dueled in front of Love, Harrison Burton, Almirola, Sanchez, DiBenedetto and the field through the first two turns and the backstretch. Both Creed and Jones would remain dead even in front of three-stacked lanes before Creed muscled ahead from the outside lane and led the following lap. Creed would then waste no time moving in front of Jones amid the draft entering the first two turns while Love was trying to gain momentum with drafting help from Almirola. This would cause Creed to go on defensive mode on both Jones and Love as Creed led the next lap.
Soon after, with 25 laps remaining, Love got shuffled out by Almirola amid his charge to the front as Jones made his move beneath Creed to assume the lead while being pushed by Harrison Burton. The field would fan out to nearly four lanes entering the first two turns as Creed got shuffled out from the lead draft. As Creed plummeted to the rear of the field, Jones led Harrison Burton while Love muscled his way back up to third place. Zilisch would then make his way into the runner-up spot behind Love as Jones, Kvapil, Harrison Burton, Allgaier, Dye, Sanchez, Hill and Thompson were all scrambling within the draft and in the top-10 mark.
With 20 laps remaining, Zilisch, who led the previous lap, was leading ahead of teammate Kvapil, Love, Allgaier and Jones amid a three-wide action for the lead. Zilisch would have his JR Motorsports’ teammates Kvapil and Allgaier settle behind him amid the draft towards the outside lane while Hill was trying to ignite a charge from the inside lane with drafting help from Love, Sanchez and Almirola. Hill would then get alongside Zilisch through the frontstretch with 18 laps remaining, but Zilisch used the outside lane to lead the following three laps in his No. 88 WeatherTech Chevrolet Camaro entry.
Down to the final 15 laps, Hill navigated his No. 21 Bennett Transportation Chevrolet Camaro entry to the front. Hill would duel with his teammate Love during the following lap and in front of two-stacked lanes. By then, Hill led the outside lane in front of Zilisch, Sanchez, Kvapil and Allgaier while Love led the inside lane in front of Jeb Burton and Creed.
Then with 13 laps remaining, the caution returned when Almirola, who was racing in 14th place, made a move from the middle to the outside lane and got himself turned across the front nose of Katherine Legge in the backstretch. In the process, Almirola smacked the outside wall on the driver’s right side while both he and Legge collected Jones and Jeffrey Earnhardt after they shot back dead left across the track, thus knocking all four out of contention. At the time of caution, Hill was leading ahead of Zilisch, Love, Sanchez and Jeb Burton.
As the field attempted to restart under green with seven laps remaining, Leland Honeyman Jr. spun to the bottom of the track while choosing his lane for the restart. Honeyman’s incident, which dropped him to the rear of the file. This resulted in the rest of the field scrambling for respective lane options and caused NASCAR to postpone the restart for the following lap.
The start of the next restart with six laps remaining featured Hill briefly leading Zilisch and the field to the start before Zilisch and Sanchez overtook the former. Sanchez would then lead the following lap before Zilisch made his way back to the front, beginning with four laps remaining.
With three laps remaining and the field stacked in four-tight drafting lanes, Allgaier made his move beneath teammate Zilisch, who was on defensive mode, for the lead as he led a lap for himself. Zilisch, however, would use the outside lane to muscle back ahead through the first two turns. Through the backstretch, Jeb Burton would charge to the rear bumper of Kvapil and make a move beneath the latter. Kvapil would then get pinned and shoved out of the draft amid a tight four-wide actions through Turns 3 and 4 as Love, Burton and Allgaier all had momentum and were trying to gain runs on the leader Zilisch.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Zilisch held a narrow lead over Jeb Burton as the latter went underneath the former for his bid for the lead. Both Zilisch and Burton dueled for the top spot through the first two turns and in front of three-stacked rows as Love charged to the rear bumper of Zilisch while being drafted by Hill.
Then in the backstretch, Love, who attempted to make a move beneath Zilisch, turned Zilisch as the latter spun and hit the backstretch’s inside wall head-on. As a result, the caution flew and the event was deemed official. By then, however, Burton, Love and Hill were dueling against one another in three-wide formation as NASCAR officials were left to determine who was ahead of the remaining two when the caution flew.
Then upon review of the footage, Hill was ruled out in front of both Burton and Love at the moment of caution and thus, he was declared the official winner for his third NASCAR Xfinity Series victory of the 2025 season.
With the victory, Hill, who became the first three-time race winner of this season, notched his first-ever win at Talladega, his ninth on a superspeedway venue and his 12th of his Xfinity career. The victory was the ninth of the year for the Chevrolet nameplate and the 101st in the Xfinity division for Richard Childress Racing as the organization also notched its third at Talladega.
“Man, we really had to work for that one,” Hill said on the frontstretch on the CW Network. “Our car was really good. Everybody at [Richard Childress Racing] and ECR Engines are bad to the bone, like always. I thought that we were done. I just locked in and started pushing the heck out of [Love].
Me and my teammate, Jesse, we worked really well together all day for the most part. I was pushing him as hard as I possibly could on the top. nd I knew he was gonna have a really good run down the backstretch. I figured he was gonna go left and try to get to the bottom. When he went left to go to the bottom, I knew I still had help outback, so I was just trying to keep my help outback. I see [Zilisch] spinning to the inside. I’m like looking left, looking at the [caution] light and I couldn’t tell. I knew that it was either me or [Burton].”
“Man, to win’em anyway that you win’em is always great and to finally conquer Talladega, that’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a really long time,” Hill added. “I just really wanted to win [at Talladega]. We’ve won at all these other superspeedways and to finally get it done at all the superspeedways that we go to, it just goes to show this No. 21 team can win at any of them. We’re really good at this style of racing. I’m gonna give it up to [spotter Derek Kneeland] today. He worked extremely hard up on top of that roof and we’re gonna celebrate this one.”
Jeb Burton, who was attempting to notch his third career Xfinity victory and his first since Talladega in April 2023, settled in second place. Love led a race-high 50 laps and was striving for redemption since being stripped of his Rockingham Speedway victory due to his car failing the post-race inspection process, settled in third place.
The runner-up result left Burton both dejected and disappointed over NASCAR’s ruling of awarding the victory to Hill as the former felt that he had been scored the leader at the moment of caution. During his post-race interview, Burton did not mince his words as he called for NASCAR to double-check the footage to determine who was leading when the final-lap caution flew.
“I felt like when the caution flew, I was ahead of [Hill],” Burton said. “I don’t know if we can call it or what. He continued, I don’t see [Hill] ahead of me at all any of this [caution footage] time. Right there, you can see my nose is in front of [Hill]. I don’t know what we’re looking at [based on the footage], but is it not in front to you? That angle right there, we won the race and that’s what I saw across my right front. I think I got the best view of it compared to anybody. [NASCAR] needs to go look at [the footage] because every angle I keep seeing, we win the race. Just frustrated with that. Maybe they can show us a different angle here. I don’t know what’s so complicated. We’re gonna protest, if you can protest, do whatever the hell we can do because I think we won this race.”
Justin Allgaier came home in fourth place. Matt DiBenedetto recorded his first top-five finish of this year by finishing in fifth place. Anthony Alfredo, Harrison Burton, Blaine Perkins, Sheldon Creed and Daniel Dye completed the top 10 in the final running order.
Meanwhile, Connor Zilisch, who led nine laps and was in the position of notching his first superspeedway victory in NASCAR, ended up in 27th place following his final-lap accident. He was evaluated at the infield care center and emerged uninjured.
Notably, the following names that included Taylor Gray, Sam Mayer, Nick Sanchez, Carson Kvapil, Brennan Poole, Jesse Iwuji, Christian Eckes, Jeremy Clements, Brandon Jones, Sammy Smith, Jeffrey Earnhardt, Aric Almirola, Katherine Legge, Ryan Sieg and William Sawalich ended up 11th, 14th, 15th, 17th, 19th, 20th, 25th and 26th, 28th, 31st, 32nd, 33rd, 34th, 36th and 37th, respectively.
There were 26 lead changes for 15 different leaders. The race featured five cautions for 23 laps. In addition, 26 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.
Following the 11th event of the 2025 Xfinity Series season, Justin Allgaier leads the regular-season standings by 79 points over Austin Hill, 102 over Sam Mayer, 109 over Jesse Love, 143 over Carson Kvapil and 150 over Connor Zilisch.
Results:
1. Austin Hill, 19 laps, Stage 2 winner
2. Jeb Burton, seven laps led
3. Jesse Love, 50 laps led, Stage 1 winner
4. Justin Allgaier, one lap led
5. Matt DiBenedetto
6. Anthony Alfredo
7. Blaine Perkins
8. Harrison Burton
9. Sheldon Creed, nine laps led
10. Daniel Dye
11. Taylor Gray
12. Patrick Emerling, one lap led
13. Leland Honeyman
14. Sam Mayer
15. Nick Sanchez, one lap led
16. Ryan Ellis
17. Carson Kvapil
18. Dean Thompson
19. Brennan Poole
20. Jesse Iwuji
21. Joey Gase
22. Mason Maggio
23. Kyle Sieg
24. Kris Wright
25. Christian Eckes, two laps led
26. Jeremy Clements, one lap led
27. Connor Zilisch – OUT, Accident, nine laps led
28. Brandon Jones, one lap down, eight laps led
29. Josh Williams, two laps led
30. Caesar Bacarella, five laps down
31. Sammy Smith, six laps down, one lap led
32. Jeffrey Earnhardt – OUT, Accident
33. Aric Almirola – OUT, Accident
34. Katherine Legge – OUT, Accident, one lap led
35. Greg Van Alst – OUT, Accident, two laps led
36. Ryan Sieg – OUT, Accident
37. William Sawalich – OUT, Engine
38. Parker Retzlaff – OUT, Accident
Texas Motor Speedway is next on the 2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series season. You can tune into the Andy’s Frozen Custard 300 this Saturday, May 3, and will air at 2 p.m. ET on the CW Network.
