NASCAR XFINITY SERIES: CHAMPIONSHIP

November 9, 2024

Austin Hill

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: We're now joined by another member of the Championship 4, Austin Hill.

Q. On that second-to-last restart, what was the decision behind choosing high instead of maybe going on the inside and trying to use the dogleg possibly?

AUSTIN HILL: The outside lane on all the restarts all day kind of seemed to net out a little bit better for the most part. We were at a tire disadvantage. We had to put right side scuffs on, I believe it was, and then we had left sides that had a lot of laps on it.

Being at a tire disadvantage makes it really tough, especially if I would have chose on the inside lane I was going to have to drive in super deep, probably slide him and then park it in the middle, and even doing that they probably still would have got to my outside.

I was wanting to -- in my head, I wanted the 00 or the 7, if they were going to pass me, I wanted it to be on the inside so I had kind of preferred lane on the top and could run them tight if I needed to getting into 3, take the air off of them.

And when I got down into 1, I started to slip the right front a lot, and I drove in as deep as I could and I saw the 00 trying to get to my outside.

So I drove up a little bit to try to block that, and the 00 got in the back of me a little bit, which we're going for a championship; I expect that. He didn't do anything wrong. It just got me and him both out of the racetrack and allowed the 7 to drive by both of us underneath.

I'm going to have to go back and watch replays and stuff. I actually have no idea what I could have done different to beat the 00 or the 7 with us being on such a tire disadvantage. Tires mean a lot here. We knew it was going to be a tall order, and it just didn't work out.

Q. I saw that you went over and talked to Justin during the ceremony. What did you have to say to him?

AUSTIN HILL: Just told him congrats and it's been fun racing him all year. He's a heck of a race car driver. He's going to be a great champion for the Xfinity Series for next year, holding that banner. Congratulated his entire 7 team.

It's been a lot of fun racing with those guys all season long. I feel like Justin and I, we race each other extremely hard but we also race with a lot of respect. I just wanted to show that respect back to him.

He's been working at this really hard for a long time, and this is his seventh playoff appearance, and to see him and his family and all get it done, if I couldn't have gotten it done and got the championship, I'm glad that he was the one that got it done.

Q. This was your first ever appearance in the Championship 4 in the series. What did you learn through this experience, and what can you take heading into next year?

AUSTIN HILL: Well, it's just one race. One race doesn't really solidify your season. We had four wins on the season. We ran really well all season long. You've just got to be resilient just for one race.

Phoenix has been a track that we've struggled at a little bit as an organization. I know the 2 car was pretty decent today and they had a shot at winning, but overall we've struggled a little bit here. We've gotten better. We've made strides at it.

I think that coming back next year, if we were able to make it to the final four again, just staying on top of the racetrack a little bit better and where it's hard to judge if the track is going to go tighter or looser or what it's going to do.

But I had asked after Stage 1 and even Stage 2, I believe it was to try to tighten me up just because I was fighting right rear grip all day, but I was so much faster being loose.

As soon as we got the car on the tight side to where I wasn't free at all, we just started overcooking the right front and ended up cording the tire during that one long run, and that's ultimately what was the difference maker tonight for us that got us behind on tire strategy and then we were playing catch-up from there.

All in all, though, solid effort to the entire 21 team, everybody at RCR, ECR. To get to this point and make it to the final four, that's all you can ask for is a shot at it. We had a shot but we came up short, but we're going to hold our heads up high and get ready for next season.

Q. Austin, how would you assess your 2024 season?

AUSTIN HILL: Well, I mean, obviously you want to win the championship, so we came up short there. But all in all, I think at the start of February in Daytona, you just want to be one of those final four drivers to have a shot at it.

We were able to do that. I think all in all, this year has been a solid year for us. There's areas that we still need to work on and be better as a race team, some other areas to win some more races.

I think that we're going to be a lot better going into next year. There's a lot of things going on at RCR with new cars and just some moving parts and pieces. I feel really good about where I'm at with RCR. I think we're making strides each and every year, and if we keep doing that, we'll end up a champion one day.

Q. If you could do it all over again, would you bring a brand-new race car to the racetrack, or would you bring something else you had at the shop?

AUSTIN HILL: This was a brand-new race car for us, and I thought our car had really good speed. I think there's definitely things to work on and bugs to work out, but I think that overall, if you look back at some of the races that I've ran here in our other equipment, in our other cars, it wasn't like we ran any worse or any better, really.

I do think overall our new car was a little bit better. Just more so than anything, we just got behind on adjustments, and I think that was the main difference maker.

It's always nice to have a brand-new race car underneath you. We just unfortunately weren't able to close it out.

Q. Justin had a couple penalties. He had a penalty for getting out of line on the restart and another for speeding on pit road. I assume when you see him a lap down, potentially two laps down, are you thinking, he's out of it? Or do you think, gosh, these races are so crazy, he could be right back in it?

AUSTIN HILL: Yeah, I definitely didn't think that he was ever out of it. Until lap 200 laps, I don't think anyone is ever out of it. As soon as I saw that they stayed on the racetrack and we had just came in and took our sets of tires and we had only ran like seven laps on them and that caution came out, I knew that he was going to be back on the lead lap and he was right back in it.

I think that everything that you fight throughout a race, no matter if you go a lap down, you speed, you pull out of line too early, whatever goes on, you just always have to dig deep and keep thinking positive and hope that it works out for you, and tonight it worked out for the 7.