As we geared up for the conclusion of the race, it was clear that Brent Crews had the best car on the track, followed by Austin Hill at a close second. The real question was whether or not strategy would work out in their favor. Taylor Gray maintained the race lead through a couple of chaotic restarts. On Lap 33, Corey Day spun around, triggering a caution. Then, on the next restart on Lap 35, Sam Mayer clipped the inside wall. This caused him to ricochet hard into the outside wall, causing massive damage to his own vehicle and the cars of many of his competitors. 19 cars were involved in the pileup, including William Sawalich, Jesse Love, Justin Allgaier, Sammy Smith, Brent Crews, Brandon Jones, Austin Hill, Brennan Poole, and Anthony Alfredo. The incident also damaged the wall, triggering the second red flag of the race.
After the track was repaired after a lengthy red flag, we finally restarted with 24 laps remaining. There were some growing concerns regarding further delays and remaining daylight so, NASCAR started that if it got to a point where the clock struck 7:45 PT (10:45 ET), the next lap would be the red flag. Gray held his own on the restart before being passed by Parker Retzlaff. The No. 99 led a handful of laps before Carson Kvapil ran him down on fresher tires to take the lead. Meanwhile, Austin Hill recovered to the Top 5. 20 Laps to go.
Just as green flag pitstops started to commence, the caution flew to reset the tire barrier following Leland Honeyman Jr.’s spin. Meanwhile, Brent Crews, who had one of the better cars on the day, started smoking. He ultimately went behind the wall, his day over as his engine finally let go.
With 10 laps remaining, Carson Kvapil led over Taylor Gray, Austin Hill, Sammy Smith, and Sheldon Creed. What Kvapil didn’t want to see was a caution. However, shortly after taking 10 to go, Jesse Iwuji spun and got hard into the tire barrier, though he was able to pull himself free, it tore the front right fender off the car. This caused a debris caution.
We went green again with 8 laps to go. Carson Kvapil was able to easily take the lead as he gapped Gray in second place. Hill followed and behind them were Sheldon Creen and Jesse Love. They remained this way, taking 5 laps to go. Carson Kvapil inches towards victory but Taylor Gray and Austin Hill were doing everything they could to chase him down. As they took 5 to go, Taylor Gray’s team were made aware that there was some debris on the grille of the No. 54 Toyota.
With three laps to go, Taylor Gray was there. The two were racing side by side when Taylor Gray dumped the No. 1 of Carson Kvapil to take the race lead. This backed up Gray enough for Austin Hill to come into play. On the final lap, heading into Turn 1, Austin Hill bumped Gray out of the way, taking the race lead. One of the better cars all race long, Austin Hill went on to score the win in the inaugural O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race in San Diego. Taylor Gray finishes runner-up, Sheldon Creed third, Carson Kvapil comes home fourth.
This marks Hill’s third win of the season, the 16th of his career. Additionally, this marks Richard Childress Racing’s first win since the tragic loss of Kyle Busch in May. To celebrate, Austin Hill did a burn out in Turn 8 next to the track’s No. 8 logo honoring the late, great Kyle Busch.
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