Austin Hill Continues Superspeedway Supremacy With Another Daytona Win

DAYTONA BEACH, Florida -- They've done everything they can, even changing the series name to the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series, but they couldn't stop the inevitable from happening on Saturday evening in the United Rentals 300 at Daytona International Speedway. Austin Hill did what he has done so many times before as he cruised to victory lane in a superspeedway event.

In his post-race press conference, Hill praised the entire Richard Childress Racing team for the continuation of dominance.

"I don't know what it is about Daytona, first race of the year, but you know we just always bring a really fast Bennett Chevrolet. Everybody at RCR, ECR, CT Springs, just does a fabulous job to prepare these Chevys to be as fast as they are," Hill said.

Although, you could argue the field was closer to pulling off the dramatic late-race manuever around Hill as he had challenges from Brennan Poole, and a last lap surge from Jordan Anderson, but it simply wasn't enough. It continues to not be enough.

"Everyone in the series is super hard to beat, and tonight was one of those nights. It was probably one of the hardest races that I've ran on being able to win on a superspeedway," Hill admitted. "Everyone is getting better. Everyone is like upping their game. I didn't know if we were going to be able to win the race tonight, but somehow we were able to get it done."

Hill's win marks the driver's fourth career NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series win at Daytona, and he is now up to 11 superspeedway victories. It's a testament to Hill's ability to seemingly always know what to do in the closing laps, it's a testament to the overall strength of Richard Childress Racing at this style of track, and it's a testament to the abilities of his spotter, Derek Kneeland, to keep him informed of what's going on around him

"Derek Kneeland, my spotter, he is so good at what he does," Hill explained. "He is the best on the spotter stand, and I truly believe that. He is the reason why we've won as many as we have. I mean, yeah, I'm holding the steering wheel, but he paints the picture out back of what's going on. He paints the picture of what's going on in front of me. He gives me so much information that I'm able to apply, and that's why we work so well together."

In another dominant effort, Hill scored the wins in Stages 1 and 2, and as a result, he walks away from Daytona with 75 championship points, which gives him a 25-point lead heading into EchoPark Speedway, another of his strongholds on the schedule.

Crossing the finish line behind Hill was Justin Allgaier, the 2024 series champion, who was 0.081 seconds shy of the win. Ryan Sieg would rally from being involved in on of several late-race pileups to finish third, and Anderson, who looked like he could possibly win the race, faded to fourth when he was forced to shove Hill heading into Turn 3 on the final lap.

Sammy Smith would recover from an early-race crash for a solid fifth-place finish to kick off his 2026 chase for a championship.

A feel-good story inside the top-10 was Ryan Ellis, a journeyman racer who moved to Young's Motorsports in the offseason. Ellis came into Saturday night's race with one top-10 finish through his first 164 starts. With a sixth-place result, which amounts to his career-best finish, Ellis has doubled that mark with two top-10s.

"I'm going to try not to cry. But you're going to learn real quick that I'm a crier," Ellis in a media scrum post-race. "Really wanted a top-five, but I'm not remotely upset. Frankie Kimmel, we went across the line and he was like, 'Sixth,' and I was like, 'I don't care, woo!'"

Ellis then got choked up as he thought about a tough offseason.

"It's been a really hard offseason. I've had some losses in the family," Ellis explained. "Doesn't make it worth it, obviously, pretty good, yeah. One-for-one not in a bad points spot. It frees up a lot of stress for later in the year with a competitive field."

Carson Kvapil, Blaine Perkins, Jesse Love, and Rajah Caruth rounded out the top-10 finishers in the race.

Anthony Alfredo, who has had a disastrous Speedweek at Daytona, was able to end things on a high note as he rallied from an incident on the initial start of the race to finish 11th. Alfredo, who initially made the field for the Daytona 500 before being disqualified after the Duels, would go on to miss the field for this race in qualifying earlier in the day on Saturday.

However, Alfredo's Viking Motorsports team was able to strike a deal with Alpha Prime Racing to place Alfredo in the No. 4 Chevrolet for this race in place of Caesar Bacarella.

Poole, who looked to have a shot at winning the race in the No. 44 Alpha Prime Racing Chevrolet, nearly got turned on the backstretch in the closing laps in a hard shove from Justin Allgaier. Thankfully, he was able to wrangle the car, and came back to the finish line in the 12th position.

Saturday night's United Rentals 300 at Daytona International Speedway featured 15 lead changes among eight different drivers, and the race was slowed for caution seven times for a total of 36 laps.

Next up for the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series is the Bennett Transportation & Logistics 250 at EchoPark Speedway on Saturday, February 21. That race will be televised on The CW with coverage set to begin at 5:00 PM ET. The Performance Racing Network (PRN) and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will provide the radio broadcast of the event.

2026 United Rentals 300 Race Results

1. 21-Austin Hill, 75 points
2. 7-Justin Allgaier, 50 points
3. 39-Ryan Sieg, 34 points
4. 32-Jordan Anderson, 33 points
5. 8-Sammy Smith, 36 points
6. 02-Ryan Ellis, 31 points
7. 1-Carson Kvapil, 47 points
8. 31-Blaine Perkins, 36 points
9. 2-Jesse Love, 37 points
10. 88-Rajah Caruth, 34 points
11. 4-Anthony Alfredo, 26 points
12. 44-Brennan Poole, 25 points
13. 38-Patrick Emerling, 0 points
14. 99-Parker Retzlaff, 28 points
15. 28-Kyle Sieg, 22 points
16. 45-Lavar Scott, 21 points
17. 07-Josh Bilicki, 20 points
18. 48-Patrick Staropoli, 19 points
19. 30-Carson Ware, 18 points
20. 42-Carson Hocevar, 0 points
21. 52-Daniel Dye, 0 points
22. 87-Austin Green, 15 points
23. 5-Luke Fenhaus, 14 points
24. 00-Sheldon Creed, 18 points
25. 27-Jeb Burton, 14 points
26. 18-William Sawalich, 22 points
27. 17-Corey Day, 10 points
28. 54-Taylor Gray, 9 points
29. 24-Harrison Burton, 8 points
30. 20-Brandon Jones, 8 points
31. 41-Sam Mayer, 6 points
32. 51-Jeremy Clements, 10 points
33. 35-Natalie Decker, 4 points
34. 92-Josh Williams, 3 points
35. 26-Dean Thompson, 2 points
36. 25-Nick Sanchez, 4 points
37. 19-Gio Ruggiero, 0 points
38. 91-Mason Maggio, 1 point

2026 United Rentals 300 Race Results

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