Austin Hill has five wins out of his eight outings at the EchoPark Speedway in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. But for Hill, his victories are not a byproduct of his dominance. Instead, he feels his wins were never meant to be his.

Austin Hill considers EchoPark one of the most difficult

During their pre-race conference, Richard Childress Racing teammates Jesse Love and Austin Hill were being interviewed about their upcoming race in Atlanta. When asked about his record at the track and the victories he has had, Hill was very humble about his expectations.

“I don’t know why I’ve had the success that I’ve had in Atlanta. It’s just been good to me. There have been—talking about not having good handling race cars when I had the gold Bennett car here for the 50th anniversary race. I was going to run fifth or sixth, and that’s all I had that day. And we got down to the end of the race and had a restart, and I was able to take the lead and just held on for dear life.

“So just some of these races have gone my way that I shouldn’t have won. I shouldn’t have won the race; Jesse led all the laps, and I saved some fuel. Caution came out right when we needed it to, and then, we got through the gears good.”

While talking about his victories, Hill emphasizes being lucky in clutch situations. He doesn’t feel like he has done a really good job controlling the race. For Hill, his victories are mere statistics. When it comes down to racing, he feels like he is still miles away from truly dominating Atlanta.

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“So, there’s been multiple races where a little bit of luck has to be on your side. So with us winning the amount of races that we’ve won here, there haven’t been dominant performances by any means.

“So, tomorrow night could be one of those races where we’re just in the mix and something’s going to have to go our way to get the job done. It’s extremely hard to win here. We’ve made it, I guess, look easy at times, but it’s anything but that.”

The 2026 Daytona winner in the O’Reilly Auto Parts series is the defending winner of the race in Atlanta tonight. He will be starting the race from the 10th row, but he can’t be counted out of contention yet.

Hill is a native of Winston, Georgia, and for him the home crowd has always been a lucky charm. He believes that it is their support and love that gives him the motivation to make the best out of every race in Atlanta. The EchoPark Speedway is one of his favorite tracks.

In his interview, Hill also commented on the nature of racing at the EchoPark Speedway. He doesn’t consider it similar to the superspeedways, which are comparatively easier to race at and get a good run at.

“This track does race a lot differently just because things are happening a lot quicker. It’s a mile and a half versus your two-and-a-half-mile tracks, where you can generate runs a little bit easier. Here things happen very fast.

“You have to be kind of established where you want to be, especially when it comes down to the races early. Easy to get single-filed out here. You might see some good two-by-two racing, especially with it being a night race tomorrow night.”

Austin Hill may deny it, but currently, he is among the best drivers of the NOAPS. He has been consistently delivering results in a top team like RCR. So what does he feel about making the jump to the pinnacle of stock car racing?

Austin Hill denies Cup aspirations to stick with Tier 2

When asked about his future plans, Austin Hill immediately snubs the idea of going to the Cup Series. He has been racing in the NOAPS for four years straight. He does lack a championship title, but he is still competitive enough to challenge for victories in every single race. Hill also holds the series record of winning 11 times at drafting tracks.

“I think the end goal has always been to run Cup and at least give it a shot for two or three years. But I’m having a lot of fun where I’m at and having a lot of fun in this series. If the right opportunity presents itself to go Cup racing, I would definitely entertain that.

“But, you know, as of right now, I’m fully committed to this series. I’m having a lot of fun in it. These cars are by far way more fun to drive than the Cup car is, in my opinion. The Cup car is a lot of fun on the road courses, but on the oval-style stuff, it’s just the O’Reilly series where it’s at for me.”

Austin Hill is not the first guy to consider the NOAPS car better than the Cup Series cars. The racing experience that the current-gen NOAPS car provides attracts many veterans to the series. It’s the unique nature of the series that is giving The CW confidence to try to make it a standalone series and not just a Tier-2 stepping stone of the Cup Series.