NASCAR Xfinity race at Daytona results: Austin Hill wins

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.

Austin Hill loves Daytona, and Daytona appears to love him back.

The Richard Childress Racing driver won the first race of the 2023 Xfinity Series season — dominating early, hanging on during a crazy finish and notching his second win at Daytona International Speedway in as many seasons.

It wasn’t without a bunch of drama, though: A caution prompted a late-race restart and forced overtime. The top of the pack was super tight — among Hill, John Hunter Nemechek and Justin Allgaier — and then, after the white flag (marking the race’s last lap), a car flipped and a caution came out.

When a caution emerges after the white flag, whoever is leading when the caution comes out is deemed the winner. After a few moments of reviewing tape, NASCAR made it official — Hill had won at Daytona again.

Hill knew he had a fast car — and he proved that early.

Hill qualified to start in P1, but he took a trip down pit road before the start of the race to replace a broken radio. That pushed him to the rear to start the race. The driver of the 21 car didn’t seem to care, though: The driver rose through the field quickly, passing cars one by one and fending off a late run from Justin Allgaier to win Stage 1.

In Stage 2, Hill finished third. But most importantly, he stayed in the race. Saturday night was relatively tame for a Daytona race, but there was still carnage: Eight cars saw their days end early — most notably Daniel Hemric and Sheldon Creed, both of whom ran promising runs before getting collected in wrecks they didn’t cause.

Other results from Daytona on Saturday

▪ Before the Xfinity race, the ARCA Menards Series featured a bunch of laps under caution and a Greg Van Alst win at Daytona International Speedway. The race’s most well-known competitor — former “Malcolm In The Middle” star Frankie Muniz — finished 11th.

Unofficial results from Xfinity race

POS	CAR	DRIVER	DELTA	BEST TIME	BEST LAP
1	21	Austin Hill	—	47.174	3
2	7	Justin Allgaier	0.377	47.338	47
3	20	John Hunter Nemechek	0.377	47.249	85
4	31	Parker Retzlaff #	0.377	47.295	52
5	19	Myatt Snider	0.378	47.04	14
6	39	Joe Graf Jr	0.758	47.357	52
7	38	Ryan Sieg	1.318	47.09	78
8	0	Cole Custer	1.599	47.505	85
9	27	Jeb Burton	1.789	47.056	85
10	10	Justin Haley(i)	2.169	47.18	85
11	45	Stefan Parsons	2.41	47.597	17
12	16	Chandler Smith #	2.789	47.1	85
13	92	Josh Williams	2.992	47.191	55
14	9	Brandon Jones	2.993	47.502	85
15	24	Parker Chase	4.493	47.518	79
16	51	Jeremy Clements	9.708	47.123	55
17	8	Gray Gaulding	11.914	47.121	53
18	53	Joey Gase	13.328	47.493	17
19	18	Sammy Smith #	14.307	47.438	70
20	28	Kyle Sieg	16.478	47.525	17
21	2	David Starr	34.316	47.545	17
22	48	Parker Kligerman	42.304	47.718	28
23	78	Anthony Alfredo	63.041	47.085	85
24	5	Jade Buford	67.031	47.007	78
25	8	Josh Berry	91.249	47.516	85
26	1	Sam Mayer	0.249	47.524	85
27	98	Riley Herbst	0.529	47.53	85
28	44	Jeffrey Earnhardt	-1	47.429	71
29	25	Brett Moffitt	-1	47.458	86
30	34	Jesse Iwuji	-15	47.503	17
31	35	CJ McLaughlin	-38	47.58	17
32	26	Kaz Grala	-43	47.463	81
33	6	Brennan Poole	-44	47.357	71
34	2	Sheldon Creed	-84	47.704	28
35	43	Ryan Ellis	-84	47.511	17
36	11	Daniel Hemric	-105	47.811	14
37	7	Blaine Perkins #	-106	47.437	3
38	4	Bayley Currey	-117	47.894	4