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Timmy Hill Reflects on Ups and Downs of 2018

December 7, 2018
Zach Catanzareti
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By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer

2018 was the busiest season of Timmy Hill’s NASCAR career.

Running a career-high 21 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races this past season, the 25-year-old ran full-time in the Xfinity Series, competing in 28 of 33 races.

With an additional four Camping World Truck Series starts, Hill hit the track more than ever across the busy nine-month calendar — and it had its effect on the small MBM Motorsports team in Cup and Xfinity.

“Running every week has been an eye-opener for us,” Hill told Kickin’ The Tires. “It’s made us more aware of some changes we’d like to make next year if we go that route.

“When I ran my biggest stint in Cup in 2013, that was a fun year but I had a set schedule. This year, I didn’t know what I was going to do. I knew I was doing the full year in Xfinity with MBM but I didn’t know how many Cup races. We were able to pick up some sponsorship to help solidify us on a more full-time schedule.”

With the increase in racing, the results showed that 2018 wasn’t an easy road for Hill and the Carl Long-led race team, who paired for 18 of 36 races in 2018.

With a best Cup finish of 28th at Bristol in August, the Xfinity side didn’t bring much relief, either. A seventh-place run at Daytona in July stood as Hill’s only top-25 result all season, proving to Hill that improvement wasn’t happening.

“It’s had its ups and downs,” he said. “As a small team, we don’t have enough people. When we made the full-time schedule in Cup, we found ourselves more behind trying to keep up. The Cup schedule is another day on the road, meaning one less day at the shop.

“The facts are we don’t have the wind tunnel time, quite the horsepower, a lot of the things the big teams have.”

These disadvantages confirmed a thought shared by both Hill and team owner Carl Long.

“We talk about this every week: We think last year we actually performed better than we did this year,” he admitted. “In NASCAR, it seems every year the big teams are getting a bigger gap on the small teams. We’re trying to find ways to improve our team but for a non-chartered team, we don’t get near the prize purse as the chartered teams do. The amount of money we have to play with is significantly less.”

The numbers back up their thoughts, as Hill’s average finish was higher, jumping from 32.0 in 2017 to 33.2 in 2018. Additionally, less lead-lap finishes (three in 2017 to one in 2018) and a worse position in the standings (32nd to 36th) only push the duo to find answers through the offseason.

“It’s a tough bridge to cross,” he said. “We’re not happy with how we’re running right now. As I said, worse than 2017. Going into next year, we have to find ways to make improvements.”

Heading into the 2019 season, Hill knows where gains were made throughout 2018. And though the overall performance was on a down turn, the composite body gives them a better starting point for 2019.

“The first half of the year, we were strictly a steel-body team,” he said. “We did OK with that but you could tell it was a big disadvantage. When we started migrating over to composite bodies, we were more on equal playing field.

“We’re going into next year with better cars than we did coming into this year. I’m looking forward for what it holds next year.”

With plans of bringing two cars next year in Xfinity, a third car is still possible for MBM. However, with the series shortening their race fields from 40 cars to 38, qualifying on speed will be goal No. 1.

“That will make us really have to step up our game,” he said of the shortened fields. “It’s going to add extra stress. I’ve been put in a role where every week I have to qualify on speed. My approach won’t be any different but for other teams near the bottom, it’s going to be more stress than they’d want.

“For MBM, our main focus will be on the Xfinity side itself. We still plan some Cup races, don’t know the capacity.”

One weekend that is confirmed for 2019 is the Daytona 500, where Hill with attempt the Great American Race in the team’s No. 66. MBM will bring a second car with a driver and car number yet to be announced.

But before Hill turns his head toward what will be his ninth season of NASCAR competition in 2019, there are some worthwhile memories that will stay with the veteran well past the winter months.

One memory occurred at ISM Raceway in November when family and racing once again merged during the weekend’s Xfinity race. Hill’s brother Tyler Hill made his series debut for MBM in their No. 13, finishing 31st.

“I’ve been talking with Carl throughout the year saying how I wanted to get Tyler behind the wheel,” he said. “I thought at Phoenix he did a really good job, communicated with the team well, showed his experience. Tyler and I raced together growing up. Besides the NASCAR stuff, he has as much experience as I have. I knew he’d do a good job.”

One week prior to this coming-together, Timmy Hill found himself in competitive equipment, running NEMCO Motorsport’s No. 87 Chevrolet at Texas in the Truck Series. Though it was a start-and-park deal, Hill qualified a career-high 11th behind the Illmor motor.

“[Team owner Joe Nemechek] told me the truck would haul ass and it did,” Hill said. “Those trucks are so good. I appreciated him letting me do that because it’s just a big confidence booster. It’s really neat to show people you can still do this if you had the right opportunity.”

 

(Below is a video capture of our conversation with Timmy Hill)

One thought on “Timmy Hill Reflects on Ups and Downs of 2018”

  1. Pingback: Carl Long expected to focus more on XFINITY in 2019 - Jayski's NASCAR Silly Season Site

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