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NASCAR Xfinity Series

Raptor King of Tough 250

Atlanta Motor Speedway

February 24th, 2024

Race #2 of the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series Season

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Laps Scheduled: 163
- Extended to 169 laps
Miles Raced : 260.3
Time of Race : 01 Hours 55 minutes 16 seconds
Average Speed: 135.474 mph
Margin of Victory : 00.106 seconds
Cautions: 4
Caution Laps: 23
Lead Changes: 11

Daniel Hemric celebrates after winning the 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship — Avondale, Arizona - November 6th, 2021: Daniel Hemric, driver of the #18 Poppy Bank Toyota, celebrates after winning the 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship at Phoenix Raceway. Photo by Sean Gardner | Getty Images

Driver	ST	50%	10%	FIN	HI	LW	AVG	PC D	Pass	Passed	PS D	Q PASS	Fast	%T15	TOT Led	Laps	Rating	TOT PTS
Austin Hill	2	9	5	1	1	15	6.5	+1	63	76	-13	58	6	100.0%	2	169	112.6	43
Chandler Smith	12	15	12	2	2	22	10.8	+10	61	47	+14	56	10	98.2%	0	169	95.9	40
Shane van Gisbergen	13	5	11	3	3	31	14.2	+10	47	25	+22	19	5	61.5%	0	169	87.4	34
Sheldon Creed	10	20	16	4	4	21	13.1	+6	43	31	+12	36	6	55.0%	0	169	88.4	37
Parker Retzlaff	24	14	17	5	5	26	16.9	+19	41	28	+13	8	1	12.4%	0	169	79.8	32
Jeremy Clements	23	24	19	6	6	30	20.4	+17	50	25	+25	12	6	23.1%	0	169	78.9	31
Anthony Alfredo	15	18	20	7	6	36	21.2	+8	35	38	-3	5	2	4.7%	0	169	75.1	30
Jeffrey Earnhardt	22	13	15	8	7	24	13.7	+14	38	36	+2	33	7	88.2%	0	169	82.7	29
Ryan Truex	8	3	3	9	1	18	4.4	-1	39	34	+5	39	6	99.4%	0	169	109.2	42
Sammy Smith	14	10	9	10	3	16	8.9	+4	44	32	+12	43	3	98.2%	0	169	93.2	34
Sam Mayer	6	8	8	11	2	29	8.8	-5	51	38	+13	34	8	89.4%	0	169	95.3	34
Jesse Love	1	4	1	12	1	12	1.2	-11	22	31	-9	22	11	100.0%	157	169	135.5	45
AJ Allmendinger	7	1	13	13	1	24	8.8	-6	52	50	+2	43	9	97.0%	8	169	97.1	31
Brandon Jones	18	6	6	14	5	30	13.5	+4	65	58	+7	22	4	52.1%	0	169	81.7	23
Riley Herbst	4	2	2	15	2	18	3.4	-11	36	36	+0	35	6	95.3%	0	168	108.2	39
Cole Custer	11	7	7	16	3	21	9.8	-5	46	52	-6	43	12	93.5%	0	168	86.3	25
Kyle Weatherman	17	29	24	17	14	29	22.8	+0	36	42	-6	3	0	1.8%	0	168	59.8	20
BJ McLeod	21	21	26	18	18	35	27.1	+3	41	40	+1	0	1	0.0%	0	168	49.1	19
Parker Kligerman	5	11	4	19	1	19	5.8	-14	59	75	-16	54	2	99.4%	1	168	98.0	24
Brennan Poole	30	23	27	20	18	31	23.3	+10	50	46	+4	0	1	0.0%	0	167	61.8	17
Leland Honeyman Jr	35	25	18	21	18	35	23.4	+14	24	26	-2	0	1	0.0%	0	167	56.1	16
Ryan Sieg	20	16	14	22	9	29	14.4	-2	49	48	+1	35	14	87.6%	0	167	75.9	17
Jeb Burton	25	19	28	23	10	31	23.7	+2	37	36	+1	5	0	2.4%	0	167	54.5	14
JJ Yeley	36	22	29	24	19	36	25.4	+12	28	20	+8	0	0	0.0%	0	167	49.2	13
Ryan Ellis	34	27	21	25	20	37	26.2	+9	33	30	+3	0	0	0.0%	0	167	46.8	12
Nick Leitz	31	28	23	26	4	31	24.6	+5	41	26	+15	0	0	0.6%	0	167	50.5	11
Hailie Deegan	19	17	22	27	16	30	22.9	-8	25	36	-11	0	5	0.0%	0	167	56.4	10
Justin Allgaier	9	12	10	28	2	14	8.3	-19	32	21	+11	32	8	98.2%	0	167	86.5	22
Joey Gase	33	31	32	29	29	37	32.8	+4	12	16	-4	0	0	0.0%	0	166	33.7	8
Blaine Perkins	28	26	25	30	19	31	25.5	-2	29	33	-4	0	0	0.0%	0	166	45.0	7
Dawson Cram	29	35	31	31	17	35	31.4	-2	20	23	-3	0	0	0.0%	0	166	34.8	6
John Hunter Nemechek	3	37	34	32	3	37	24.9	-29	36	69	-33	33	6	39.1%	0	165	77.8	0
Patrick Emerling	37	34	35	33	30	37	33.7	+4	19	16	+3	0	0	0.0%	0	165	29.7	4
Garrett Smithley	32	30	33	34	28	37	33.6	-2	15	15	+0	0	0	0.0%	0	165	29.3	3
CJ McLaughlin	27	36	36	35	14	37	32.1	-8	24	37	-13	0	0	0.6%	0	164	38.0	0
Kyle Sieg	26	33	30	36	1	36	29.5	-10	35	47	-12	0	0	1.2%	1	164	35.5	1
Josh Williams	16	38	37	37	13	38	37.3	-21	7	29	-22	6	1	1.2%	0	159	28.0	1
Jordan Anderson	38	32	38	38	32	38	36.8	+0	7	11	-4	0	0	0.0%	0	98	23.2	1

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Race Fast Facts

Atlanta Motor Speedway
RAPTOR King of Tough 250
Race Winner: Austin Hill
Age: 29
Team : No. 21 - Bennett Transportation Chevrolet
Owner: Richard Childress Racing
Crew Chief: Andy Street
Austin Hill won the RAPTOR King of Tough 250, his eighth victory in 83 Xfinity Series races.
This is his second victory and second top-10 finish in 2024.
This is his third victory and fourth top-10 finish in five races at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Chandler Smith (second) posted his first top-10 finish in three races at Atlanta Motor Speedway. It is his second top-10 finish in 2024.
Shane Van Gisbergen (third) posted his first top-10 finish in his series track debut at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Shane Van Gisbergen (third) was the highest finishing rookie.
Austin Hill has become the fourth different driver in NASCAR Xfinity Series history to win the first two races of a season; joining Dale Earnhardt (1986), Chad Little (1995) and Tony Stewart (2008).

Race Recap

Austin Hill saves enough fuel to win second straight NASCAR Xfinity race

February 24th, 2024

By Reid Spencer - NASCAR Wire Service

Sunoco rookie Jesse Love led almost all the laps, but in the end, it was his Richard Childress Racing teammate, Austin Hill, who had Saturday’s RAPTOR King of Tough 250 fall into his lap.

For Hill, who won last week’s NASCAR Xfinity Series season-opener at Daytona International Speedway, it was the continuation of a serendipitous start to 2024. Hill is the first driver since Tony Stewart in 2008 to win the first two events of an Xfinity season.

The victory was Hill’s third in the last four races at Atlanta Motor Speedway and the eighth of his career.

But victory for the driver of the No. 21 Chevrolet came at the expense of Love, who started from the pole, swept the first two stages and led 157 of 169 laps. Love ran out of fuel at the start of a two-lap overtime, as Hill grabbed the lead for the first time and held off eventual runner-up Chandler Smith by 0.106 seconds.

The bottom line? Running behind the leaders in a single-file line, Hill was able to save more fuel than his teammate at the front of the pack. Hill had enough in his tank to stave off Smith who had pitted for fuel under caution on Lap 164.

“I was really thinking we were down and out,” Hill said. “I was thinking the 2 (Love) was going to go get ‘em, and hey, if I can’t win, let my teammate win. We were riding there in fourth or fifth—whatever it was—I was saving fuel…”

On the overtime restart on Lap 168, Hill’s car stumbled when he shifted from third to fourth gear.

“The 81 (Smith) hit me really hard, and that woke it back up, and I had enough fuel to complete the lap. But I’ve got to take this moment to congratulate, Jesse Love, my teammate. He ran an awesome race. To be a rookie and to lead that many laps, he should be sitting in Victory Lane right now.”

The coup de grace for Love came when the Ford of Ryan Sieg ran out of fuel on Lap 161 of a scheduled 163 and stopped on the track in Turn 4. The caution extended the race by six laps and allowed a dozen cars to pit before the overtime restart.

Among those who took advantage of the fuel stop was New Zealander Shane van Gisbergen, who finished third in his second Xfinity Series start.

“It’s almost comical,” Love said. “Man, I’m just so damn proud of everybody on this Whelen car. It just wasn’t meant to be. Obviously, as a Christian, I’m not going to allow myself to question why we were under caution so long or what happened.

“I always try to take responsibility for everything, so I as a driver I should have saved more fuel. Man, I just didn’t want anybody to catch me off-guard. I thought I saved a ton. Man, that overtime or that caution just lasted forever.

“No matter what, I’m really proud of our guys. We had a great showing. Led a lot of laps man. It just wasn’t in store for us today.”

Van Gisbergen was delighted to be on the other side of the fuel equation.

“Pretty awesome,” he said. “Great job by (crew chief) Bruce (Schlicker) on the box there to pit us. I had so much fun. Just learning about it and running in the pack. Yeah, to be P3 in the second race in the WeatherTech Chevy is pretty awesome. I’m stoked.

“It’s just good to get a result and have a clean car, especially after last week (at Daytona) when I got involved in so much stuff. So, to have a clean race, not make too many mistakes, and complete every lap, we learned a lot. It was awesome.”

Riley Herbst, Love’s foremost challenger over the closing laps was among the first to run out of fuel—from the second position on Lap 160. Cole Custer hit empty almost simultaneously, then Sieg, causing the fateful caution.

The gas shortage throughout the field scrambled the finishing order, leaving Sheldon Creed fourth and Parker Retzlaff fifth. Jeremy Clements, Anthony Alfredo, Jeffrey Earnhardt, Ryan Truex and Sammy Smith completed the top 10.

Note: Love is the first driver since Christopher Bell in 2017 to lead more than 100 laps in his first two Xfinity Series starts combined. Bell led 152 of 250 laps in his second start at Iowa. Love led 34 laps in his series debut last Monday at Daytona, giving him a total of 191 for the two races.