by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief

Austin Hill picked up the 2nd last-place finish of his NASCAR Cup Series career in Sunday’s AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 at the Texas Motor Speedway when his #33 United Rentals Chevrolet fell out with steering issues after 98 of 276 laps.

The finish, which came in Hill’s seventh series start, was his first of the season and first in a Cup Series race since July 9, 2023 at Atlanta, 26 races ago. In the Cup Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 27th from steering trouble, the 37th for the #33, and the 855th for Chevrolet. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 36th for steering, the 53rd for the #33, and the 1,936th for Chevrolet.

Austin Hill remains perhaps the most anticipated Cup prospect from the NASCAR XFINITY Series. In just 89 series starts, the Richard Childress Racing driver has already scored eight wins – most often after late-race reversals of fortune. He’s proven particularly strong on the superspeedways. After a disappointing miss of last year’s Championship Four after a late-race tangle with then-teammate Sheldon Creed at Martinsville, Hill stormed to back-to-back wins in the year’s opening rounds at Daytona and Atlanta. His 34th-place finish in his most recent XFINITY start at Martinsville was his first finish worse than 8th all season.

Last season on the Cup side, Hill failed to qualify for the Daytona 500, but made his other five remaining attempts for the Beard Motorsports team, achieving a season-best 14th last summer in Daytona. With Anthony Alfredo taking over as Beard’s driver this year, Hill has brought back RCR’s #33 entry, which Hill drove to an 18th-place finish in his series debut at Michigan in 2022. His season debut for 2024 would come in Texas, carrying his XFINITY co-sponsor United Rentals.

Hill began his Texas weekend on the XFINITY Series side, where he qualified 13th and led a season-high 25 laps before he settled back in 6th. On the Cup side, his #33 ranked 33rd of the 38 entrants, then qualified 17th in Qualifying Round 1A with a lap of 186.387mph (28.972 seconds), good enough to secure 34th on the starting grid.

Securing the 38th and final starting spot was Daniel Hemric, whose #31 South Point Hotel and Casino Chevrolet turned in the slowest completed lap of qualifying at 185.522mph (29.107 seconds). On Sunday, he’d be joined by two drivers who didn’t turn a lap in qualifying due to separate incidents in practice. Kyle Busch spun his #8 zone Chevrolet off Turn 2 and hit the outside wall, followed by Jimmie Johnson who struck the Turn 2 wall in his #84 Advent Health Toyota. Busch lined up 35th with Johnson in 37th. Also docked on Sunday was 33rd-place qualifier Kaz Grala, whose #15 N29 Capital Partners Ford had an issue with the steering rack.

Prior to the start, NASCAR instructed the penalized Grala, Busch, and Johnson to line up at the tail end of the inside line. This placed Grala 34th ahead of Ty Dillon’s #16 Sea Best Seafood Chevrolet in 35th, then Busch, Hemric, and at 3.32 seconds back of the lead, Johnson. At the drop of the green flag, Johnson remained alongside Hemric for a lap, starting Lap 2 just 0.066 second behind. Hemric cleared Johnson, who was silent on the radio in the opening laps. The interval fluctuated between one and two-tenths of a second until Lap 9, when he finally cleared Hemric, opening a gap of 0.431 by the time they reached the stripe. Johnson soon passed Grala for 36th, and Hemric dropped Grala to last on Lap 11.

Over the next few laps, Grala lost ground to Hemric, who was 0.364 ahead of him on Lap 12, then 0.542 on Lap 15, 0.334 on Lap 19, and 0.440 on Lap 20. That time by, Grala asked if others were downshifting like he was in the opening stages. As the crew looked into this, the gap from 33rd to 34th grew to 1.888 seconds, leaving the final five cars in a pack by themselves. Grala inched toward Hemric to 0.251 on Lap 23, then by Lap 30 was working over Hemric for position. But on Lap 34, the leaders caught Grala, putting him the first car one lap down.

On Lap 35, the first round of green-flag stops began, causing the 38th spot to change hands several times. First to take it on the 35th circuit was John Hunter Nemechek in the #42 Romco Equipment Co. Toyota, then on Lap 36 it went to Denny Hamlin in the #11 Yahoo Toyota. Nemechek retook the spot on Lap 37 followed on Lap 39 by Justin Haley, Grala’s teammate, in the #51 Jacob Construction Ford. A fuel spill across Ty Gibbs’ pit stall forced Gibbs to stay out longer in his #54 Interstate Batteries Toyota, but as he pitted, it was Johnson who took over last on Lap 41. Grala made his own stop, only to pit outside the box, and he took over last on Lap 43. Grala ducked down pit road directly in front of teammate Haley, nearly causing a collision. “A little bit of a heads-up would be nice,” said Haley. “I almost fucking wrecked both of us. I had no idea the 15 was pitting.” Grala returned to the track between three and four laps down, still in 38th place. On Lap 50, when Johnson spun off Turn 3, Grala radioed to his team, “I'm sorry about that pit stop, guys - really shot us in the foot.”

Grala remained in last through the caution and the Lap 56 restart, when he was now classified as the only car two laps down. Three laps later, he radioed he was still having steering issues with the replacement steering rack. The spotter also informed him of cars struggling and falling back, including Brad Keselowski’s #6 BuildSubmarines.com Ford on Lap 63, then Daniel Suarez’ #99 Kubota Chevrolet on Lap 64. That time by, Grala caught Keselowski at the stripe with Suarez dropping back to his outside. Austin Dillon was also struggling, his #3 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet dropping to 31st on Lap 77. All managed to avoid wrecking, and the next caution came on Lap 80 to end Stage 1. Still running last, Grala radioed his steering was responding so slowly that, at one point, he nearly veered into a car running to his outside. The team could do little to remedy the issue, but estimated it wouldn’t get worse by the finish.

Grala restarted on Lap 89, still two laps down, and watched as teammate Justin Haley dropped Johnson back to 37th. Johnson was continuing to struggle after his spin, allowing Grala to get by off Turn 2, though this wasn’t for position. He was nearly three laps down on Lap 98 with Johnson in 37th. On the tail end of the lead lap now in 33rd was Austin Hill. Hill had stayed out under the caution at the end of Stage 1, allowing him to restart 2nd alongside then-leader Ryan Blaney. Hill gradually lost positions under green, but like Grala soon discovered an issue with the power steering. On Lap 99, Hill came down pit road, then headed to the garage area, where the crew said, “Yeah, blew the power steering up.”

But on Lap 100, the moment NASCAR confirmed Hill went to the garage, Christopher Bell spun his #20 Rheem Toyota off Turn 4, triggering a secondary wreck between Alex Bowman’s #48 Ally Chevrolet and John Hunter Nemechek’s #42. Nemechek avoided t-boning Bowman’s spinning car in the grass, but struck the left-front of Bowman with his passenger-side door, causing heavy damage to both cars. While Nemechek managed to return to the track with a patch of tape on his door, clearing the “Crash Clock” on Lap 108, Bowman’s crew saw their clock quickly expire. The crew had just managed to remove the hood when time expired on Lap 104. They then re-attached it and pushed Bowman back to the garage stall behind him. Bowman then drove behind the wall on Lap 105, done for the day. Hill, now parked in his garage stall, was two laps behind the now-retired Bowman.

On Lap 123, Hill’s crew radioed that they were going to fix the steering issue, run a few laps, then park their car for the race. But the only driver in range was Bowman, two laps ahead, as Nemechek and Bell were still on track. But on Lap 125, Hill’s onboard camera turned off. Hill didn’t return to the track, and was declared out by NASCAR on Lap 152. In his interview with Frontstretch, Hill said he didn’t have an issue driving the car without power steering, but felt he couldn’t catch the car if it broke loose on him. Not wanting to wreck the car, he pulled into the garage. Over the radio, the team indicated they would return in three weeks at Kansas.

Bowman was also declared out on Lap 152 along with another two retirees, both due to single-car accidents. Josh Berry claimed 36th after at least three separate incidents in his #4 Miner Docks Doors and More Ford, the last two of which spins into the wall in Turn 2. Taking 35th was Michael McDowell, who was running 2nd off Turn 4 when he broke loose over a bump and backed hard into the wall in his #34 Love’s / Fleetguard Ford. Nemechek rounded out the Bottom Five when he lost control entering Turn 3, backing his damaged #42 into the outside wall and ending his race.

Hocevar and Ty Dillon impress on demanding Texas track

Finishing a strong 10th in the #77 Premier Security Chevrolet was Carson Hocevar, who earned Spire Motorsports’ first top-ten finish on a non-drafting track. Hocevar’s run was all the more remarkable for rebounding from a Lap 115 spin with Kyle Busch. Making just his 18th career Cup start, Hocevar now has a new career-best finish, improving on his 11th last fall in Bristol.

Ty Dillon was also among the drivers running near the tail end of the field, but managed to claw his way into contention in the final stages. He came home in 16th – his best finish since he ran 11th at Daytona in the fall of 2023 in the Spire #77 now driven by Hocevar. The Texas track has become one of Dillon’s best. In 12 total series starts, seven saw him finish inside the Top 20 with a track-best 13th coming in 2018.

LASTCAR STATISTICS

*This marked the first last-place finish for the #33 in a Cup Series race at Texas since April 9, 2017, when Jeffrey Earnhardt’s #33 Superior Logistics / Chris Kyle Memorial Chevrolet crashed after 9 laps.

*Hill is the first driver to finish last in a Cup race at Texas due to steering issues.

THE BOTTOM FIVE

38) #33-Austin Hill / 98 laps / steering

37) #48-Alex Bowman / 100 laps / crash

36) #4-Josh Berry / 136 laps / crash

35) #34-Michael McDowell / 143 laps / crash

34) #42-John Hunter Nemechek / 226 laps / crash

2024 LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

1st) Spire Motorsports (3)

2nd) Kaulig Racing, Motorsports Business Management, Penske Racing, RFK Racing, Richard Childress Racing, Rick Ware Racing (1)

2024 LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

1st) Chevrolet (5)

2nd) Ford (4)

2024 LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP