Hill Looks to Match Career-Best NXS Finish in Final Start of 2021
October 14, 2021Back in the Wheelhouse … Austin Hill wraps up HRE’s six-race NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) schedule on Saturday afternoon at Texas Motor Speedway (TMS). The driver of the No. 61 Toyota Tsusho Toyota Supra has made his last two NXS starts on road courses but returns to his wheelhouse on a 1.5-mile speedway in “No Limits, Texas”. Hill captured his best-career NXS finish at a 1.5-mile venue last season at Kansas Speedway with a fifth-place finish and has scored 11 consecutive top-10 finishes on 1.5-mile tracks in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. The Winston, Ga. native and crew chief Dave McCarty look to close out HRE’s NXS schedule on a high note and capture the team’s third top-10 finish this season.
Texas Hunter … While Hill has yet to earn a cowboy hat and trophy from TMS, the Fort Worth speedway has been one of his best racetracks in three seasons with HRE. In five NASCAR Camping World Truck Series starts piloting the No. 16 Toyota Tundra at TMS, Hill has collected three top-10 finishes, including a runner-up last October, and has led laps in two of his last four starts. Before joining HRE, Hill earned his first Camping World Trucks top-five finish at TMS in October 2018. Last season, Hill pulled double duty at “No Limits, Texas”, coming within inches of his first Camping World Trucks victory but succumbed to a mechanical issue in the NXS event.
Season to Date … In five previous NXS appearances this season, the No. 61 Toyota Tsusho team has tallied a pair of top-10 finishes, a season best ninth-place result with Hill at Nashville Superspeedway and a 10th-place run with Bubba Wallace at Michigan International Speedway. Hill and the No. 16 team finished fourth at TMS in the Camping World Trucks race in June and have compiled two wins, seven top-five and 13 top-10 finishes through 21 of 23 races this season.
Chassis Selection … McCarty and the Toyota Tsusho squad have prepared chassis No. 004 for Hill’s second NXS start at TMS. This Supra most recently raced at Pocono Raceway in June and was driven to a fifth-place finish at Kansas Speedway last October.
Tune In … NBC’s coverage from TMS begins with “Countdown to Green” at 2:30 p.m. ET followed by the green flag at 3:00 p.m. ET. Stay connected with the No. 61 Toyota Tsusho team by following @Hattori_Racing on Twitter, @hattoriracing on Instagram, and Hattori Racing Enterprises on Facebook.
Austin Hill Quote:
On his second NXS start at Texas:
“The mile-and-a-half’s have always been our strong suit in the truck and we’ve been pretty solid at those tracks with our Xfinity program too. We had an issue at Texas last year, but this is the same Toyota Tsusho Supra that we ran so well with at Kansas last fall and I think we can do it again on Saturday. Texas has always been a strong track for us. We came close to winning the truck race last fall, so it’s a place that we know what we need in our Toyota Supra, and how we need the balance to feel. We’ve made some good gains in the handful of races we’ve run this season and I know everybody at HRE on our Toyota Tsusho Supra wants to close it out with a solid finish on Saturday and something we can all be proud of.”
