Austin Hill, driver of the No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, assesses his outlook as the Xfinity Series Playoffs looms.
One year after winning the 2023 Xfinity Series Regular Season Championship, Austin Hill isn‘t entering the 2024 Xfinity Series Playoffs with as much momentum. He finished fourth in the regular-season standings, with all three of his victories coming at drafting-style tracks.
Opening the campaign with consecutive wins at Daytona International Speedway and Atlanta Motor Speedway, Hill took advantage of the No. 21 team‘s primary strength: superspeedway racing. He swept the Atlanta leg, winning at his home track again with three races remaining in the regular season.
Based on Hill‘s regular season performance, he enters the playoffs as the No. 3 seed, trailing only Justin Allgaier and regular season champion Cole Custer. Hill’s 25 playoff points give him an 18-point buffer to the elimination line to begin the opening round.
“I probably wouldn‘t say that we‘re one of the favorites right now,” Hill told NASCAR.com ahead of his postseason run. “I don‘t think people view us as a favorite just because a lot of people only view me as I can only get it done on superspeedways when it comes to the Xfinity Series.”
Hill won‘t sugarcoat that the No. 21 team is a step off from the 2023 season. Two early-season victories enabled crew chief Andy Street to chase playoff points, which was a strategy spearheaded by Hill. That mindset flips this weekend at Kansas Speedway (Sat., 4 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), with stage points being the focus.
“There are areas that we‘ve done well at, but there are also areas where we‘ve gotten better, but there is still room to be gained,” Hill said. “You are never pleased with where you‘re at. You‘re always trying to find more unless you‘re winning every single race.
“We love where we are unloading and that we have speed off the truck, it‘s just what can we do to keep that speed all race long and not start going backwards. Little things like that, if we can clean that stuff up going into the playoffs, we‘re going to be strong.”
Through the first 26 races, Hill would give the No. 21 team a B-minus letter grade. Richard Childress Racing has made its short-track program better, an area that needed to improve, Hill explained.
“We‘ve won three races — that‘s been great — but we want more,” Hill stated. “We‘re not satisfied with where we‘re at. If I sat here and told you we were an A-plus, that means there‘s no room to grow and there is a lot of room for us to grow.
“On the flip side, even though I said we‘re a B-minus, I think we‘re a really strong race team.”
Street has a similar assessment to the team‘s regular season.
“Our regular season didn‘t go as planned for sure,” he said. “Looking at last year‘s regular season, we were fortunate enough not to be involved in as many accidents and didn‘t have as many DNFs as we‘ve had this year. I think the performance of the team, in general, has been good. We‘ve had a few races where we haven‘t been our best, but I feel like the tracks that we‘ve been to and showed up with speed, we‘ve been a solid top-five car, putting ourselves in a chance to win the race.”
The Round of 12 is filled with tracks that suit Hill. In three starts at Kansas, he has a pair of top-five finishes and has won at the 1.5-mile oval in the Truck Series (2020). Talladega Superspeedway is the middle race, and while he has dominated multiple races at the 2.66-mile facility in the past, he‘s still looking for his first victory. The round concludes with the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course, and while the 17-turn layout isn‘t his best, the No. 21 team is often competitive when turning left and right.
The point of emphasis in the opening round is to have a clean Talladega.
“If we get out of Talladega unscathed, we‘re going to be looking really well for when we go to the Roval,” Hill said.
The first two Round of 8 venues bode well for Hill, as well. He has won at both Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Homestead-Miami Speedway, but Martinsville Speedway has been among his biggest challenges during the postseason, no matter the series. Last year, it was a catastrophe for RCR when Hill and his former teammate Sheldon Creed took each other out while battling for the lead in the waning laps.
Hill believes RCR has improved at Martinsville, but it‘s the track that‘s taken him out of the playoffs more times than not.
“Martinsville has been the Achilles‘ heel for me,” Hill admitted. “It‘s been one of those race tracks where there‘s times when I‘ve had speed and run up front, but there is something about when it‘s in the playoffs, it hasn‘t gone our way.
“My mindset going into that round — if I make it into that round — is to win at Vegas or Homestead and not have to worry about Martinsville. That‘s the easiest thing to do, but it‘s the hardest thing. I‘m going to be extremely aggressive at Vegas and Homestead doing all we can to build as many points to go into Martinsville.”
With fifth- and sixth-place finishes in his first two seasons at the Xfinity level, Hill‘s primary focus is to advance to the Championship 4 at Phoenix Raceway. Anything else is a bonus.
To advance to Phoenix, the No. 21 team will need to minimize its mistakes through the first six races and then a weight will be lifted off his shoulders to have a shot at adding to RCR‘s title collection in the Xfinity Series.
“With as many years as it‘s been of me getting into the Round of 8 — the last five years in trucks and Xfinity and not making it to that final four — my goal is to just make it to the final four,” Hill said. “From then on, at least it gives you a shot. You have a 25% chance of winning the championship after that.”