A race-winning decision often comes down to a driver's instinct. But on Saturday in San Diego, Austin Hill believes there was something more at play in the final laps that helped him gain his breakthrough road course win.

An emotional Hill, who is currently driving the renumbered 33 Chevrolet for Richard Childress in the Cup series in place of the late Kyle Busch, took the O'Reilly Series win despite his car not feeling so good through most parts of the race.

Speaking to the media after the race, Hill revealed what helped him take control of the race after his struggles.

“With about five or so to go, I was struggling really bad with rear grip. I didn’t have great forward drive, I was laterally sliding the rear tires, I was going off of turn five into six. I’m like, 'Man, Kyle, if you’re watching this race, I could use some help here,'" as reported by Steven Taranto on X.

Hill then mentioned the mysterious help he received, saying,“For whatever reason, something told me to just start adding more front brake to it, and that exact lap that I asked about it, I just started cranking front brakes.”

Hill saw the results of cranking up his front brakes and felt the front tires glowing, and that heating the tires to give him the perfect final four laps as he chased down victory. 

“Those last four laps, the car just came to life and started having a lot more rear grip and the car. And we just started rolling really good and then when those two got together, that just kind of opened up my option to possibly get the win.”

Austin Hill made a thrilling last-lap pass over Taylor Gray in Turn 3 to win his inaugural road course race and the second O'Reilly win of his season after the Daytona 500.

Hill wore the Kyle Busch 8 cap while celebrating his NOAPS win in the 21 RCR Chevrolet and even dedicated it to the Busch family. 

Hill gets emotional after San Diego Win

While he felt Kyle Busch helped him get the 21 RCR Chevrolet to victory lane, Hill was an emotional figure after getting his second NOAPS win this season. 

Hill took over the responsibilities of the car that was driven by Busch before his tragic demise. Hill took the opportunity of celebrating his first win since Busch’s passing by remembering NASCAR’s winningest driver. 

In the same interview, Hill said, “Very emotional win. This win is for the Busch Family. Samantha, Brexton, Lennix, Kurt, their parents, just everyone on the Busch family, this win is all for them.”

Even the team owner Richard Childress couldn't stay without remembering the No. 8 legend. “It’s great to win here and we all have Kyle in our hearts,” Childress said.

Hill also described how the RCR team has come together since the loss of the magnanimous presence of Kyle Busch to put in every effort to get better. 

The 33 RCR driver said, “This is why we’ve been putting in the effort that we have, we always put a lot of effort in, but the effort has went up tremendously these last several weeks. It goes to show that hard work kind of pays out if you just keep digging deep.”

While Hill won the NOAPS race, he was also in a slender lead in the Cup race when he had contact with Connor Zilisch, which put Hill, Zilisch and Shane Van Gisbergen all out of the race as Corey Heim ended up getting his first Cup win. 

You can read more on the Daytona Racing Digest!

Written by

Debrup Chaudhuri

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason