Austin Hill Continues Superspeedway Dominance With Daytona Pole

Austin Hill continues to be the guy to beat at superspeedways as he took the pole for Saturday's NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series United Rentals 300 at Daytona.

Austin Hill shows off his $2,000 check for taking home the pole position in Saturday's NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series United Rentals 300 at Daytona International Speedway. | Ricky Martinez | Racing America On SI

DAYTONA BEACH, Florida -- At superspeedways in the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series, it's Richard Childress Racing's world, and we're all just living in it. That continued to be the truth on Saturday as Austin Hill defeated Jesse Love, his RCR teammate, by 0.001 seconds to score the pole position for the season-opening United Rentals 300 at Daytona International Speedway.

Hill's pole-winning lap in the final round of qualifying was a 49.390-second circuit around the 2.5-mile track, which equates to a 182.223 mph average speed.

Hill, a native of Winston, GA, comes into Saturday's event at Daytona with 14 career NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series wins, 10 of which have come at superspeedway-style tracks. He'll definitely be the odds-on favorite in Saturday's race at Daytona.

Sam Mayer was able to make it a clean sweep for Chevrolet in the top three of the starting lineup for Saturday's race. Mayer's Haas Factory Team swapped to Chevrolet from Ford in the offseason. William Sawalich, a driver in his sophomore season with Joe Gibbs Racing, will start alongside Mayer in the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.

Corey Day, Sheldon Creed, Rajah Caruth, Patrick Staropoli, Taylor Gray, and Ryan Sieg rounded out the top-10 fastest drivers in the qualifying session.

With 42 cars battling it out for 38 starting spots, there was some high drama in the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series garage as four drivers and teams had to pack up their haulers after missing they missed the race.

Garrett Smithley, driving the No. 0 SS-GreenLight Racing Chevrolet, David Starr, driving the No. 53 Joey Gase Motorsports Chevrolet, Anthony Alfredo, driving the No. 96 Viking Motorsports Chevrolet, and Joey Gase, driving the No. 55 Joey Gase Motorsports Chevrolet, all missed the show.

However, after qualifying was completed, Alfredo's No. 96 team was able to reach a deal with the No. 4 Alpha Prime Racing team, which will put Alfredo behind the wheel of the No. 4 Chevrolet with DUDE Wipes sponsorship for the race. Alfredo takes over for Caesar Bacarella, who initially qualified 26th for the race.