By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
For the first time since February, Austin Hill has scored a top-five finish in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series.
In fact, spanning 10 races, it was the longest between top fives Hill ever experienced since joining Richard Childress Racing in 2022.
“Maybe we got the monkey off our back,” said Hill after ending Saturday fifth at Dover Motor Speedway.
Confidence for Hill can be scary for the field. The forceful racer has never gone winless with RCR (and will not in 2026 after winning the season-opener at Daytona) and has never finished outside the top six in points.
“If you look back on my stats over the last few years, we normally knock out a lot of top fives and top 10s and are really consistent throughout the season,” he said.
Indeed, after now 14 races in 2026, Hill is on his lowest-career average finish of 12.9. And though it’s not all down to speed, Hill knows improvements need to be made.
“We just ran our own race and had a really good shot at running second or third but just ran out of laps,” he said. “It took me too long to get up into fifth. We’ve been needing some confidence and a momentum builder and I think this is gonna give it to us going into Charlotte.”
The search for results has not lacked effort from Hill or from crew chief Chad Haney. Sometimes, good results just can’t find you.
“This season has been one of those where you’re gonna have it in racing where you go through these slumps,” he said. “Things that are in your control but also out of your control.
“We were in that stretch where nothing that we did was right. Nothing I did on the racetrack, nothing we did on the box, everything ended up being wrong. It was about pointing the finger at anybody, just something always seemed to happen and we couldn’t get a smooth race.
“Now that we finally have that. I think going forward, it’s gonna give us a lot of confidence. Watch out for the No. 21 car.”