Victory at Atlanta Motor Speedway a dream for Douglas County native Austin Hill

HAMPTON — Like other young kids who were racing Bandoleros and Legends on the quarter-mile track at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Austin Hill wanted to race in NASCAR and compete on the “big track” at AMS.

While he had that dream, he never imagined he would get the chance to race in the second-highest level of NASCAR, much less win at his home track.

“I never imagined winning in the Xfinity Series here, I never imagined racing in the Xfinity level,” the Douglas County native said after winning Saturday’s Alsco 250. “I was just happy to be at the Truck level to be honest with you. To be on the Xfinity level, I’m very humbled about it.”

Going into Sunday’s race, he finished second three times in a row at AMS, twice in the Truck Series and then second again in the March AMS race.

“I grew up racing here when I was 7, 8, 9 years old, something like that, raced it on the quarter-mile track in the Bandoleros and Legends cars,” Hill said. “I have a lot of laps around that place, a lot of wins and a lot of memories (in Bandoleros and Legends). To finally win on the big track means a lot. I can’t really put it into words, it’s special to me. It’s definitely at the top of the list of wins for me.”

Hill credits racing Legends cars in helping him hone his racing skills.

Many past and current NASCAR drivers have come up through the Legends program at Atlanta Motor Speedway such as Chase Elliott, Joey Logano, Reed Sorenson, David Ragan and Corey Heim, among others.

“Back when I was running (Legends), I don’t know how the cars are nowadays, but back when I was running, they are the hardest cars to drive. You had to be so aggressive with the car, manhandle it, drive the everlovin’ crap out of those cars every lap and set-up mattered but it didn’t matter a whole lot,” he said. “It’s about the driver and what you can with that Legend car. That’s what I liked about it.”

If he had the chance to get back in a Legends car he would do it because he loved it so much when he was younger.

“I just love Legend racing..I still do,” he said. “Legends cars are probably my favorite cars to race. If I went back and raced Legends races, it would be so much fun because I had so much fun racing those cars. Like I said, you just manhandle them and just drive them for all their worth. The guys who can race these cars feel like they can race anything.”

Hill has raced in the Xfinity Series since 2019 and has two wins, this year at Daytona and Saturday’s race at AMS. Hill is currently in sixth place in the standings.

He made his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series debut in 2014 and has eight career wins in that series.

He’s also raced in the ARCA Menard’s Series, the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East and the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West.

How other Georgia drivers fared in Saturday’s Xfinity race:

♦ Atlanta’s Brandon Jones finished 11th and is seventh in the points standings.

♦ Ryan Sieg of Tucker finished 15th and is in 11th place in the standings.

♦ Kyle Sieg of Tucker finished 16th and 31st in the standings.

♦ Douglasville’s Mason Massey finished 24th and is 30th in the standings.