NASCAR
Austin Hill wins third straight NASCAR Xfinity opener at Daytona
By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service
DAYTONA BEACH, FL — While other NASCAR Xfinity Series drivers were competing, and crashing, in Monday night’s United Rentals 300 at Daytona International Speedway, Austin Hill was playing a different game — Monopoly.
At the 2.5-mile superspeedway roughly two miles away from Atlantic Avenue, Hill beat former teammate Sheldon Creed to the finish line by 0.591 seconds to earn his third straight victory in the Xfinity season opener at the World Center of Racing.
The third win came on Monday because of weekend-long rain that forced NASCAR to reschedule the race from Saturday afternoon. The event served as the second leg of a doubleheader with the DAYTONA 500, which was postponed from Sunday and won by William Byron.
Hill has now owned Victory Lane at Daytona long enough to build a house there.
“It tops it off—three-peat,” Hill exclaimed. “You know how hard it is to win at Daytona? God almighty!”
Not that the driver of the No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet didn’t have his share of adversity. Hill overcame an early wreck on Lap 37 of 120, a flat tire and a self-destructive bent on pit road.
He crossed the finish line in a car that was heavily taped on the right front, but none of the obstacles could stop him from displaying his superiority on superspeedways once again.
“I don’t know what was going on with me on pit road today,” Hill said. “But my guys just kept telling me, ‘Look, man, dig deep; you’re really good at these superspeedways.’ I tried to screw it up on pit road—sped on pit road, slid through the box…
“I don’t even know what time it is. I know it’s past my bedtime, but we’re about to party tonight, I can tell you that.”
After pitting with a flat tire on Lap 97, Hill restarted 22nd but quickly worked his way forward. Two more cautions helped, and after lining up third for the final restart on Lap 118, he made quick work of Jordan Anderson and Chandler Smith ahead of him.
Hill was out front by more than a car-length when Ryan Sieg spun behind him off Turn 2 on the final lap. From that point, Hill simply had to steer his car to the finish line and won by a comfortable margin.
Parker Retzlaff ran third, one spot in front of his owner/driver Anderson.
“The little team that could is getting bigger,” Anderson said proudly.
Chandler Smith came home fifth, followed by Riley Herbst, John Hunter Nemechek, Justin Allgaier, Brandon Jones and AJ Allmendinger.
The race featured nine cautions for 44 of the 120 laps. There were 19 lead changes among 14 different drivers., with Sunoco rookie Jesse Love, the pole winner, leading a race-high 32 laps from the opening green flag.
Love, however, suffered more damage in the Lap 37 wreck than did his RCR teammate Hill. He finished 20th in an aerodynamically-challenged Chevrolet.
New Zealander Shane van Gisbergen, winner of last year’s NASCAR Cup Series Chicago Street Race, drove his battered Kaulig Racing Chevrolet to a 12th-place finish in his Xfinity debut.
NASCAR Xfiniti Daytona Results
BROOKLYN, MI (June 6, 2026) – Kris Wright and the No. 81 McAnally Hilgemann Racing team a hoping for better days after a frustrating DQS Solutions & Staffing 250 powered by Precision Vehicle Logistics Saturday at Michigan International Speedway.
Wright started 27th in the No. 81 iHeart Radio Silverado RST on the 2-mile oval. The race was only 7-laps old when Wright was involved in an accident, causing him to lose a lap while his team made repairs.
Wright was quickly back on pit road on Lap 18 after a left rear tire issue required additional work by his crew. Wright returned to the race three laps down at that point.
“Brutal day for our iHeartRadio team,” said Wright. “The No. 81 crew worked hard all weekend to get speed in the truck, and we never really had the opportunity to show what we were capable of.”
Fuel-only pit stops during the races final stage enabled Wright and his team to finish 31st. Corey Heim was the race winner.
Fan favorite Cleetus McFarland, in only his second series start, rallied from a late race spin that brought out one of seven yellow flags – and finished 25th on the lead lap.
The trucks are off next week and will return to action June 19 in the inaugural NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Race in San Diego on the Naval Base Coronado (7 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
“I’m looking forward to getting to San Diego in a couple of weeks,” said Wright. “Road courses have always suited my driving style, and it’ll be special to spend the weekend in Coronado celebrating the military members who will be in attendance.”
By Holly Cain
NASCAR Wire Service
BROOKLYN, MI (June 6. 2026) – Reigning NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series champion Corey Heim held off a dramatic checkered flag charge – in lapped traffic – from his TRICON Garage teammate Kaden Honeycutt to claim his first career win at the iconic Michigan International Speedway in Saturday’s DQS Solutions & Staffing 250 powered by Precision Vehicle Logistics.
It’s Heim’s 26th career victory, but first ever on the two-mile Michigan high banks giving him series wins now on 22 different tracks – second best all-time only NASCAR Hall of Famer Ron Hornaday Jr. has won at 31 venues. It’s Heim’s third win in only five truck starts this season and comes a week after announcing he will join the championship-leading 23XI Racing organization in the NASCAR Cup Series for 2027.
Heim’s No. 1 TRICON Garage Toyota passed the day’s most dominant truck driven by NASCAR Cup Series regular Carson Hocevar with 15 laps remaining and crossed the line only .065-second ahead of Honeycutt’s No. 11 TRICON Garage Toyota – the truck Heim drove to the championship last season.
He immediately thanked Honeycutt for the push forward in the final laps – his only laps out front all day – acknowledging the help put just enough distance on Hocevar, who led a race best 65 of the 126 laps.
“We discussed it pre-race that we were going to race it out in the end and that’s what we did,” the 23-year-old Georgia native Heim said. “He tried to get to my right rear there which would have probably won the race and I had to protect it.
“Props to Kaden there and to [fellow Toyota driver] Christopher Bell, I don’t know where he ended up but he was strong all day. The last couple laps there at the end, were pretty awesome.
“That was a lot of fun, I had a blast,” he added.
The 21-year-old Honeycutt certainly kept Heim honest in the closing run to the checkered, hoping to earn his second career win – matching his work at Watkins Glen, N.Y. in May.
“Good race there at the end, us five up there and I’m sure it was a good race for the fans so that was good,” Honeycutt said. “It was unfortunate I didn’t get the win there. Just feel like I’ve lost too many of them on my part so I think that’s what bothers me the most.”
Although boosted by a strong showing all day at his “home track,” the Michigan-native Carson Hocevar was clearly disappointed with his finish, explaining his No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet truck had been overheating all day. He was hoping to win for the hometown crowd and especially for his mother, who is celebrating her birthday this weekend.
“Everyone did a good job,” he said, adding, “Just sucks we didn’t close it out there. Felt like I could have done a better job but don’t know what I could have done differently. Would like to see what I would have had full power.
“A lot of reasons to win here at Michigan.”
Front Row Motorsports teammates Chandler Smith and Layne Riggs rounded out the top-five – an especially valiant effort from Riggs, who went a lap down early after a pit stop issue. A winner in the previous two races, Riggs’ comeback to fifth place keeps him atop the championship standings by 26 over Honeycutt.
Bell finished sixth in the No. 62 Halmar Friesen Toyota after sweeping both stage wins and leading 37 laps – one of six race leaders on the afternoon. Fellow NASCAR Cup Series driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr was seventh, followed by Connor Mosack, Jake Garcia and Tyler Ankrum.
Fan favorite Cleetus McFarland rallied from a late race spin that brought out one of seven yellow flags – and finished 25th on the lead lap in only his second series start.
After six consecutive races, the trucks go into an off-week and will return to action June 19 in the inaugural NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Race at San Diego on the Naval Base Coronado (7 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
By Holly Cain
NASCAR Wire Service
LEBANON, TN – Call it victorious whiplash.
Race polesitter Denny Hamlin took the lead at the drop of the green flag – was penalized and re-set to last in the 38-car field for jumping that start – then rallied his way forward again in the ensuing 300 laps to be in front for the checkered flag of Sunday night’s NASCAR Cup Series Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway.
After a back-and-forth among teammates on a final restart with four laps remaining – featuring a three-wide last-lap challenge for the win among three Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas – Hamlin delivered the manufacturer its first victory at the 1.33-mile Nashville concrete oval, his No. 11 Toyota finishing a slight .115-second ahead of teammates Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe.
“The 20 [Bell] and 19 [Briscoe] were battling so hard on that first corner it just let me get to the inside of the 20 at the first corner after the restart and from there, side-by-side with the 20,’’ Hamlin, 45, said describing the dramatic final laps that resulted in his 62nd career win.
“He [Bell] drove in so deep on that last lap into [turn] one that it just allowed me to barely clear off of [turn] two.
“What an unbelievable day starting first, going to last and then back to first.’’
For Bell, the close finish marked his second runner-up showing in as many weeks – simultaneously frustrating and encouraging. As with Hamlin, he recovered from an early race challenge – a pit stop miscue dropping his No 20 JGR Toyota from running among the top five to 30th place for a restart just before the finish of Stage 1.
“It was great racing, I hope the fans enjoyed that,’’ Bell said. “Just disappointed in myself, disappointed for my team. We brought a great race car and I didn’t get the job done.’’
The finish was certainly indicative of the close racing, important strategy calls and just flat-out team speed ultimately necessary to finally settle a race that featured a race record 31 lead changes among a record 15 drivers.
The race was delayed almost two hours because of weather, but when the action resumed, there was plenty of drama and intrigue.
The sold-out Nashville crowd issued a silent salute on lap eight to the late two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch, 41, a beloved four-time Nashville winner (twice each in the CRAFTSMAN Trucks and O’Reilly Auto Parts Series), who passed away last week of sepsis.
In the laps thereafter, the intense action quickly settled in. Hamlin’s 57 laps out front were a race high, but nine different drivers led double digit laps. And 11 caution flags affected strategy throughout the night.
Hyak Motorsports’ Ricky Stenhouse Jr finished fourth in the No. 47 Chevrolet, followed by a career-best fifth-place effort by Trackhouse Racing’s Shane van Gisbergen. The popular New Zealand road course ace turned in one of his best flag-to-flag oval performances running among the top 10 all night. His 12 laps led in the No. 97 Trackhouse Chevrolet were most for him on an oval track.
Reigning championship leader, 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick and Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott were scored sixth and seventh but were collected in an accident just after taking the checkered flag in a hard push by the field to the finish.
Last year’s race winner, Ryan Blaney was eighth followed by Zane Smith, whose No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford was leading until 12 laps to go. Spire Motorsports’ Carson Hocevar was 10th. Hendrick’s Kyle Larson – the reigning series champion – led 56 laps (only one lap less than Hamlin) but finished 23rd.
The race featured two first-time stage winners on the season – Kaulig Racing’s A.J. Allmendinger (Stage 1) and last week’s Charlotte race winner, Spire Motorsports’ Daniel Suárez (Stage 2).
With his sixth-place finish Reddick remains atop the standings, 97 points ahead of Hamlin and 174 points up on Blaney in third place.
The series moves a few hours north to Michigan Speedway for next Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 (3 p.m. ET, Amazon Prime, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Denny Hamlin is the defending race winner.
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