For the third year in a row, Georgia local Austin Hill won at his home track. He drove the No. 21 Bennett Transportation Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing to the checkered flag at Atlanta Motor Speedway after battling a hard-charging pair of challengers in Justin Allgaier and Aric Almirola.

“Don’t hate the player,” Hill said. “Hate the game.”

Both Allgaier, in the No. 7 Watch Your Melon Chevrolet for JR Motorsports, and Almirola, in the No. 19 YoungLife Toyota Supra for Joe Gibbs Racing pushed in the last five laps to pass Hill. They only had momentary success until Hill passed them on the final lap. Allgaier and Almirola continued their battle for 2nd place with Allgaier barely getting the spot at the finish line.

“I’ve been doing this long enough that you learn from it,” Allgaier said. “When you try and see how the runs develop, you go back on the history of those drivers.”

This is Hill’s 11th career win in the Xfinity Series. He now has 5 wins and 6 top-10 finishes in 7 races at Atlanta.

Sammy Smith, in the No. 8 Pilot Chevrolet for JR Motorsports, finished 4th. Rounding out the top five was Nick Sanchez in the No. 48 Big Machine Vodka Spiked Coolers Chevrolet for Big Machine Racing.

“To do what we did tonight was very special,” Hill said. “The 21 team just had that little extra pep in their step.”

Hill led 5 times for 146 of 163 laps.

Stage 1 began with an early caution and Hill leading the entire time. His teammate, Jesse Love, followed close behind in second.

Beginning with everyone getting to the top line in a single file line, stage 2 continued to be led by Hill. 

Stage 3 was the most aggressive stage with multiple wrecks and Hill having to defend his prominent lead. Crashes ended the race for  Christian Eckes, Connor Zilisch and two others. 

“I’m gonna party pretty hard after this one, but come Monday, it’s back to work,“ Hill said.

The Xfinity Series will race again at 3:30 p.m. on March 1 at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas.