Hill Wants to be the Lone Star in Texas
July 17, 2020The Lone Star … Austin Hill sits alone atop the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series championship standings and hopes to be the lone star on Saturday night at Texas Motor Speedway (TMS). The driver of the No. 16 United Rentals Toyota Tundra enters the “Lone Star State” as the only competitor with top-10 finishes in every event this season and holds a 46-point advantage in the point standings. Hill and the HRE team will be hunting their first win of 2020 while once again sporting a patriotic color scheme in recognition of United Rentals’ veteran and active duty reservist employees.
Streak of a Lifetime … Through seven events of the juggled 2020 season, Hill has constructed one of the best starts to a season in series history and the best start to a season in his 81-race Gander Trucks career. He has notched four top five’s, seven top-10 results, and holds the best average finish of any Gander Trucks series regular (4.9) by three positions. While he’s searching for his first victory of the year, he’s posted top-five finishes in three of the last four races and has a streak of top-10 finishes in the last seven races at 1.5-mile tracks, including last week’s fifth-place run at Kentucky Speedway. Not only has he and the United Rentals team been strong to start 2020, but they’ve finished in the top-10 in 13 of the last 15 events, dating back to their victory last August at Michigan International Speedway.
Texas Lowdown … Hill nearly took home TMS’ cowboy hat in the series’ most recent trip to “No Limits Texas” last June, but was one ill-timed caution away from driving to victory lane. He led 34 laps before pitting with 22 laps to go, but got trapped a lap down by a caution flag and went on to finish eighth. The Winston, Ga. native earned his first-career top-five finish at TMS in 2018 and has two top-10’s to his credit.
Chassis Selection … Saturday night’s contest at TMS will be the first appearance for chassis No. 011. It’s a fresh Toyota Tundra prepared by crew chief Scott Zipadelli and the United Rentals team specifically for intermediate-style racetracks.
Tune In … Round eight of the Gander Trucks season from TMS will be carried live on FOX Sports 1 at 8:00 p.m. ET on Saturday night. Stay updated with Hill and the No. 16 team by following @Hattori_Racing on Twitter, Hattori Racing Enterprises on Facebook, and @hattoriracing on Instagram.
Austin Hill Quote:
On his recent streak and returning to Texas:
“We’ve been right there every week and have put ourselves in a good position in the point standings. Everybody on our United Rentals team has put a ton of effort into our trucks. The guys put together a brand-new piece for this week, so I can’t wait to get in and see what we have. I feel like we should have won the summer race at Texas last year and we were really fast in the spring race but had an overheating issue, so I’m looking forward to going back this weekend. It’s definitely a place that we’ve had good speed and the mile-and-a-halfs have been one of our strong suits this year. It’d be really special to get a win with the patriotic United Rentals scheme and start putting up some playoff points in the bank.”
