Pit Stops : Talladega Superspeedway

• Thursday, April 24th, 2025
• NASCAR Wire Service - Holly Cain

Talladega Thriller Ahead: Can Austin Hill Break Record or Will a New Star Rise?

The NASCAR Xfinity Series returns to the high-banks of Talladega Superspeedway for Saturday afternoon’s Ag-Pro 300. The behemoth 2.66-mile track always provides a season highlight reel and has all the trappings for another headline-making show this weekend.

The last six Talladega Xfinity Series races have been won by six different drivers. There are 11 drivers entered this weekend that have never competed in the series at the big track.

Richard Childress Racing’s Jesse Love scored his first career series victory at Talladega last year holding off Riley Herbst and Anthony Alfredo by .141-second. Love led a race best 28 laps – the first time the race winner has led the most laps at Talladega since Tyler Reddick’s work in April 2019.

A couple of noteworthy streaks – Chevrolet has won the last 11 NASCAR Xfinity Series races at Talladega and Richard Childress Racing has won the last six pole positions.

RCR simply has a dominating record at the big circuits winning 10 of the last 19 races at drafting tracks (since 2022) including two races this season already. The team has led 1,152 laps in the last 19 drafting track races – nearly four times that of any other team.

Eight of RCR veteran driver Austin Hill’s 10 career wins have come on drafting-style tracks – Talladega, Daytona and Atlanta. Hill and Love led the most laps in their victories – Love at Daytona and Hill at Atlanta – already this season. Hill’s 734 total laps led on drafting tracks is a series record.

Should he win Saturday, the 31-year old Georgia-native Hill, would become the winningest driver on this style of track – a ninth win breaking the all-time mark he shares with a pair of NASCAR Hall of Famers, the late Dale Earnhardt and Tony Stewart.

Reigning NASCAR Xfinity Series champion, JR Motorsports’ Justin Allgaier takes a commanding 87-point lead over Haas Factory Team’s Sam Mayer into the weekend.

There are four former Talladega race winners in Saturday’s field – Sammy Smith, Jesse Love, Jeb Burton and Aric Almirola. Burton, driver of the No. 27 Jordan Anderson Chevrolet, is the only multi-time Talladega winner among the current series full-timers. He won in 2021 and 2023.

Smith is looking to become the first driver since Justin Haley (2020 season sweep) to win back-to-back Talladega races.

“Although you never know what’s going to happen at Talladega, I’m looking forward to going back there with this No. 8 JR Motorsports team as the defending winners,” said Smith, who was awarded the Rockingham victory last week after Love’s car was disqualified in post-race technical inspection.

“We had a great car in the fall and coming off this past week at Rockingham, we’re even more hungry to keep the momentum rolling and get this Pilot Chevrolet in Victory Lane again.”

Qualifying for the race will be Friday at 5:30 p.m. ET (The CW App). Hill won the pole position for this race last year.

• Talladega Superspeedway
• Ag-Pro 300
• Pole Winner: Jesse Love
• Age: 20
• Team : No 2 - WAT Chevrolet
• Owner: Richard Childress
• Crew Chief: Danny Stockman, Jr
• Jesse Love won the Pole Award for the Ag-Pro 300 with a lap of 52546 seconds, 182240 mph
• This is his seventh pole in 44 NASCAR Xfinity Series races
• This is his second pole and seventh top-10 start in 2025
• This is his second pole in three races at Talladega Superspeedway
• Austin Hill (second) posted his sixth top-10 start of 2025 and his sixth in seven races at Talladega Superspeedway
• Justin Allgaier (third) posted his ninth top-10 start at Talladega Superspeedway It is his 10th in 11 races this season
• Taylor Gray (sixth) was the fastest qualifying rookie

• Drivers Entered: 41 (3 drivers will not make the race)
• Laps Scheduled: 113
• Margin of Victory: Under Caution Seconds
• Time of Race: 2 Hours 10 Minutes 31 Seconds
• Average Speed: 138.180
• Cautions: 5 for 23 laps
• Lead Changes: 26
• Green Flag Passes: 8,729 (97.0 passes per green flag lap)

• Talladega Superspeedway
• Ag-Pro 300
• Race Winner: Austin Hill
• Age: 31
• Team : No 21 - Bennett Transportation Chevrolet
• Owner: Richard Childress
• Crew Chief: Chad Haney
• Austin Hill won the Ag-Pro 300, his 13th victory in 125 Xfinity Series races
• This is his third victory and seventh top-10 finish in 2025
• This is his first victory and first top-10 finish in seven races at Talladega Superspeedway
• Jeb Burton (second) posted his seventh top-10 finish in ten races at Talladega Superspeedway It is his third top-10 finish in 2025
• Jesse Love (third) posted his third top-10 finish in three races at Talladega Superspeedway
• Daniel Dye (10th) was the highest finishing rookie
• Justin Allgaier leads the point standings by 79 points over Austin Hill