NASCAR MEDIA CONFERENCE

February 14, 2026

Austin Hill

Frontstretch Quotes

An Interview with:

Q. Getting his 11th career Drafting Track win, the decision, though, on lap 93 to take four tires, I know it was a really hard decision for you and crew chief, Chad Haney. How important was that decision in getting to Victory Lane?

AUSTIN HILL: Yeah, I mean, I love these guys, man. Everybody that's been at Chevrolet, everybody at RCR, ECR, CT Springs, everyone that makes this possible, there's a lot of other sponsors that I'm not talking about right now, but yeah, you know, for me, when we went back out after the green flag stop, I just kept getting really tight off of 4, and I would get really loose. I'm, like, man, if it comes down to the end of this thing and I'm getting pushed hard, I don't think I'm going to win the race. I think I'm going to end up wrecked.

That's what I love about this team. They believe in me. I believe in them. I know Chad Haney, my crew chief, on the box, he was, like, man, this is a really tough decision to go from being in third to go back to 14th or whatever it was when we restarted.

It just goes to show how good this team is. We had that restart. Nobody was going middle, and I'm, like, sure, I'll take it. Drove right up through there.

Then I wanted to work with my teammate there at the end, Jesse, but I just knew that the bottom was going to surge, or I felt like it was. The top lane always gets discombobulated and they move around a lot, and everyone is trying to screw everybody over. So I just thought the bottom lane was probably the best thing for me.

I thought I messed up on the white flag lap off of 2. I got way out. Luckily, I was able to make the block with 7, and then I almost missed the block on whoever the blue car was. Here it is right here. I almost missed this block. Right when I got down, he gave me a shot. I had to save the car, but after that it was just hammer it down and just hoping that they wouldn't get back to me.

Daytona has been so good to me. I love this place. It's always fun to win and always fun to be here in victory lane talking to you.