Austin Hill holds the line in wild O'Reilly finish at Daytona
Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.—Austin Hill continued his mastery of NASCAR’s big tracks dominating Saturday’s United Rentals 300 at Daytona International Speedway – the Georgia native’s fourth win in this NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series season-opener here in the last five years.
And so typically happens on Daytona’s 2.5-mile superspeedway, the outcome came down to the dramatic last few laps and the race was decided by a split second.
Although he started from pole position and led a race high 78 of the 120 laps, Hill was tested all night – ultimately having to prevail on three restarts in the final 12 laps. His No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet beat 2024 season champion, JR Motorsports driver Justin Allgaier in another Chevrolet to the finish line by a slight .081-seconds.
It marked the famed Richard Childress Racing team’s fifth consecutive win in this race, tying a mark set by Dale Earnhardt Inc. from 1990-94. It was Hill’s 15th career victory and 11th on a drafting style track.
Even after holding the lead for most of the event, Hill said he had some concerns following a mid-race green flag pit stop – saying post-race that at one point he was fairly certain he would end up on a wrecker unable to handle the tight draft and aggressive pushes the conclusion of this race so typically includes. He dropped back to 12th but the new tires he took and some choice maneuvering landed him right back into the mix up front.
“Just shows how good this team is,” Hill said of being able to pit late and out of sequence but still move forward when it mattered most. “It was a really tough decision to go from being 14th or wherever it was we re-started. But it just goes to show how good this team was. We had that re-start and no one was going middle, so I was like, ‘sure I’ll take it.’ Drove right up through there.”
On the final restart with two laps remaining, Hill said he thought he may have misjudged one move but, “luckily I was able to make the block on the [number] seven [Allgaier], almost missed the block, and had to save the car. After that it was just hammer down and hope they didn’t get back to me.
“Daytona has just been so good to me,” said Hill, who swept both stage wins in addition to leading the most laps. “I love this place and it’s always fun to win.”
RSS Racing owner-driver Ryan Sieg finished third despite being caught up in a mid-race incident. Another owner-driver Jordan Anderson Racing’s namesake Jordan Anderson was fourth, followed by Allgaier’s JR Motorsports teammate Sammy Smith.
Ryan Ellis, Carson Kvapil, Blaine Perkins, Hill’s teammate Jesse Love and Rajah Caruth rounded out the top-10.
Love led 27 laps, second only to Hill, but got caught up in the frantic final laps – his ninth place showing not truly indicative of his evening.
“At the end I feel for my guys,” Love said. “They want to be where that 21 group [Hill] is. I’m still a step behind Austin. He’s so great at this craft. I feel like he’s a little more patient than I am right now, and I think that’s what my learning lesson is after tonight.
“I think I just wasn’t patient enough when I really needed to be, you know, taking Sammy three wide probably wasn’t the right move there. Made some other moves along the way in waning laps that I could have done about. I’ll look back at it and learn from it, and next week is a similar style of flow of things. I’ll try to take this learning lesson and bring that to Georgia.”
The NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series moves to Atlanta’s EchoPark Speedway for Saturday’s Bennett Transportation & Logistics 250 (5 p.m. ET on The CW, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The 31-year-old Georgia native, Austin Hill, is the defending race winner and has won five of the last seven races at his home track.
NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series Race Number 1
Race Results for the United Rentals 300 - Saturday, February 14, 2026
Daytona International Speedway - Daytona Beach, FL - 2.5 - Mile Paved
Total Race Length - 120 Laps - 300. Miles
Provided by NASCAR Statistics - Saturday, 2/14/2026 @ 08:10 PM Eastern
Fin Str Car Driver Team Laps Stage 1 Pos Stage 2 Pos Pts Status Tms Laps Playoff Pts
1 1 21 Austin Hill Bennett Transportation Chevrolet 120 1 1 75 Running 6 78
2 13 7 Justin Allgaier BRANDT Chevrolet 120 4 3 50 Running
3 10 39 Ryan Sieg SciAps/Recycled Materials Assn Chevrolet 120 34 Running
4 17 32 Jordan Anderson easycare Chevrolet 120 33 Running 1 4
5 12 8 Sammy Smith Pilot Chevrolet 120 7 36 Running 1 1
6 32 02 Ryan Ellis Tablo TV Chevrolet 120 31 Running 1 1
7 11 1 Carson Kvapil Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet 120 3 2 47 Running
8 14 31 Blaine Perkins WERNER Chevrolet 120 5 10 36 Running
9 2 2 Jesse Love Whelen Chevrolet 120 2 37 Running 4 27
10 7 88 Rajah Caruth HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 120 5 34 Running 1 1
11 26 4 Anthony Alfredo Protein Rice Treats Chevrolet 120 26 Running
12 25 44 Brennan Poole ROMA Chevrolet 120 25 Running
13 19 38 Patrick Emerling(i) Firman Generators Chevrolet 120 0 Running
14 27 99 Parker Retzlaff FUNKAWAY Chevrolet 120 6 28 Running
15 36 28 Kyle Sieg Hiami Hooch Chevrolet 120 22 Running
16 37 45 Lavar Scott # Urban Affairs Coalition Chevrolet 120 21 Running
17 34 07 Josh Bilicki Mando Chevrolet 120 20 Running
18 8 48 Patrick Staropoli # Syfovre Chevrolet 120 19 Running
19 38 30 Carson Ware Costa Oil Chevrolet 120 18 Running
20 20 42 Carson Hocevar(i) Zeigler Auto Group Chevrolet 120 0 Running
21 33 52 Daniel Dye(i) Champion Container Ford 120 0 Running
22 30 87 Austin Green Overplay Chevrolet 118 15 Running
23 23 5 Luke Fenhaus # Jobber/dun-rite/ICS Ford 117 14 Running
24 5 00 Sheldon Creed Ollie's Chevrolet 116 6 18 Running
25 22 27 Jeb Burton Golden Corral Chevrolet 107 9 14 DVP
26 4 18 William Sawalich Soundgear Toyota 99 7 4 22 DVP 1 2
27 6 17 Corey Day HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 99 10 Accident
28 9 54 Taylor Gray Operation 300 Toyota 99 9 Accident
29 24 24 Harrison Burton Dead On Tools Toyota 98 8 Accident
30 15 20 Brandon Jones Menards/Swiffer Toyota 92 10 8 DVP
31 3 41 Sam Mayer Audibel Chevrolet 91 6 Accident 1 6
32 29 51 Jeremy Clements All South Electric/One Stop Chevrolet 91 9 8 10 Accident
33 35 35 Natalie Decker T.N. Dickinson's Witch hazel Chevrolet 91 4 Accident
34 31 92 Josh Williams Optum Chevrolet 77 3 Engine
35 18 26 Dean Thompson Thompson Pipe Group Toyota 68 2 Suspension
36 28 25 Nick Sanchez Better Compute Works Inc Ford 32 8 4 Accident
37 16 19 Giovanni Ruggiero(i) First Auto Group Toyota 29 0 Accident
38 21 91 Mason Maggio Success Unlocked Chevrolet 0 1 Accident
Fastest Lap Bonus: # 88 lap 88 / 47.082
Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 34 Mins, 21 Secs. Average Speed: 116.618 MPH Margin of Victory: 0.081 Seconds
Stage 1 Top 10: 21, 2, 1, 7, 31, 00, 18, 25, 51, 20
Stage 2 Top 10: 21, 1, 7, 18, 88, 99, 8, 51, 27, 31
Race Comments: Austin Hill has won the United Rentals 300 at Daytona International Speedway, his 15th victory in the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series. Prior to the start of the race, the following vehicle(s) dropped to the rear of the field under penalty: No. 4 (Driver Change), and Nos. 24, 28, 30, 99 (Unapproved Adjustment).
Failed to Qualify: (4) 0 Garrett Smithley, 53 David Starr, 96 Anthony Alfredo, 55 Joey Gase.
Caution Flags: 7 for 36 laps; Laps: 2-6 (#4, 38, 44, 51, 91 Incident Fronstretch [None]); 31-38 (#8, 19, 25, 41 Incident Frontstretch / Stage 1 Conclusion [17]); 62-67 (Stage 2 Conclusion [42]); 93-96 (#4, 7, 20, 35, 39, 41, 51, 54 Incident Turn 2 [Red Flag 00:13:07] [None]); 101-107 (#17, 18, 24, 27, 28, 42, 45, 48, 52, 54, 88 Incident Turn 3 [39]); 110-112 (Debris [48]); 116-118 (#42, 88 Incident Backstretch [87]).
Lead Changes: 15 among 8 drivers; A. Hill 1-6; W. Sawalich 7-8; A. Hill 9-34; J. Love 35-44; A. Hill 45-57; R. Caruth 58; A. Hill 59-80; S. Mayer 81-86; J. Anderson 87-90; R. Ellis 91; J. Love 92-97; S. Smith 98; J. Love 99-108; A. Hill 109-113; J. Love 114; A. Hill 115-120.
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series
Next Race: February 21, 2026 - Atlanta Motor Speedway
NASCAR Integrated Marketing Communications @ P.O. Box 2875, Daytona Beach, FL 32120-2875
NASCAR O'REILLY AUTO PARTS SERIES STANDINGS
Points Repot
Daytona International Speedway
United Rentals 300
UNOFFICIAL Provided by NASCAR Statistics - Saturday, 2/14/2026 @ 08:33 PM Eastern UNOFFICIAL
Rank Driver Car Starts GL Points Ldr Nxt Race Wins Stage Wins Playoff Pts
1. Austin Hill 21 1 -1 75 0 0 1 2 0
2. Justin Allgaier 7 1 -2 50 -25 25 0 0 0
3. Carson Kvapil 1 1 -3 47 -28 3 0 0 0
4. Jesse Love 2 1 -4 37 -38 10 0 0 0
5. Sammy Smith 8 1 -5 36 -39 1 0 0 0
6. Blaine Perkins 31 1 -6 36 -39 0 0 0 0
7. Ryan Sieg 39 1 -7 34 -41 2 0 0 0
8. Rajah Caruth 88 1 -8 34 -41 0 0 0 0
9. Jordan Anderson 32 1 -9 33 -42 1 0 0 0
10. Ryan Ellis 02 1 -10 31 -44 2 0 0 0
]
Our Partners
.png)
