Bold move boosts Hill to first trucks victory
DAYTONA BEACH — Austin Hill blocked his way to his first career Truck Series victory in a crash-marred season-opener Friday night at Daytona International Speedway.
With only nine of the 32 trucks still running in the second overtime, Hill had to block Grant Enfinger for most of the final lap. He needed a last bold maneuver to hold off Enfinger as they rushed toward the checkered flag.
“When we went overtime, man, I was just so scared. So much stuff was running through my head,” Hill said. “That whole last lap my heart was pounding. I thought they were going to get to my outside and make it a drag race. I never thought in a million years I would win at Daytona.”
Hill won for Hattori Racing and solidified the team's decision to release reigning series champion Brett Moffitt a month after Moffitt won the title. Hattori Racing struggled all last season with funding, but Moffitt won the final two races of the year to give the underdog team an unexpected championship.
Team owner Shige Hattori released Moffitt and signed Hill, who had some financial backing, in early January. The 24-year-old won for the first time in 52 career Truck Series starts, and Hattori has won three straight dating to last season.
Enfinger finished second and summed up the race as “carnage everywhere.”
Ross Chastain was third, followed by Spencer Boyd and Matt Crafton. Angela Ruch, the “I never thought in a million years I’d win at Daytona,” said trucks champion Austin Hill.
niece of 1990 Daytona 500 winner Derrike Cope, finished eighth. She and Natalie Decker both made the Truck Series opener and are the only two women racing at NASCAR's national level on the opening weekend. Ruch's finish is the second-highest for a female driver in the Truck Series.