Classy Dale Earnhardt Jr. hails Austin Hill as ‘the best Xfinity series driver at Daytona’ after he won the 2023 opener, flipping JRM driver

Dale Earnhardt Jr. has won 3 Xfinity and 4 Cup races at Daytona.

Classy Dale Earnhardt Jr. hails Austin Hill as ‘the best Xfinity series driver at Daytona’ after he won the 2023 opener, flipping JRM driver

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Austin Hill

The 2023 Xfinity series has opened with a banger as defending race winner Austin Hill bagged his third career win. The Richard Childress Racing driver was awarded the win after officials adjudicated that he was in the lead while the final caution was called in over time. All three wins of Hill’s 2nd tier series career came at Superspeedways.

Austin Hill tried to squeeze his way into the lead while Junior Motorsport drivers Sam Mayer and Justin Allgaier were fighting up front. Hill spun the No:1 car, which crashed into the outside wall and landed on its roof. The No:21 car edged Allgaier and John Hunter Nemechek for the lead when the caution call came.

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The 21 years old got a special appreciation message after the win from JR Motorsports owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. who witnessed two of his drivers getting defeated. The two times Xfinity series champion wrote on Twitter, “Congrats, Austin Hill and RCR. Austin are the best at Daytona in the Xfinity series right now,”.

Austin Hill, who came across the message, was quick to reply to the message thanking the Hall Of Famer. He wrote, “Thank you, Dale Jr. means a lot coming from someone like you! Glad Sam Mayer Is okay after going upside down,”.

In case you missed it: “Allgaier robbed”- Twitter reacts to Austin Hill’s Daytona 300 win

Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s driver Justin Allgaier is proud and disappointed at the same time at Daytona

Justin Allgaier (@JRM)
Justin Allgaier (@JRM)

No:7 JRM Chevy driver Justin Allgaier had a solid day at Daytona as the veteran racer who finished P3 last season returned from an early race spin to finish at P3. Allgaier was on lead, while Sam Mayer was airborne. He couldn’t hold on to it till NASCAR waved the caution flag as Hill and Nemechek edged him. In his post-race interview, the 36-year-old driver pointed out that though he is disappointed with the result, he is proud of his team’s efforts.

“[I’m] Really proud of everybody at JR Motorsports. Our Chevy Camaros were absolutely blazing fast. This whole team’s worked their guts out. To have the adversity that we had tonight, to go to the back and have that spin, just battled our way through. It’s crazy how fast our car was tonight and how good we were in traffic,” Justin Allgaier said.

“[I’m] Disappointed. I thought I could get enough of a draft off of [Berry], and maybe, they couldn’t catch me, but I just got too far out there. That was really all it came down to, but proud of our team. Really proud of the effort we put in. I think we got a lot to walk out of here with our confidence high. We’ll go on next week to California, and I think we’ll be as equally fast,” Justin Allgaier added.

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