LAS VEGAS – Austin Hill made a dramatic last-lap pass and then drove to victory Saturday afternoon in the Alsco Uniforms 300 Xfinity race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Hill, who notched his fourth career Xfinity win and second of the year, and Justin Allgaier chased down pole-sitter Chandler Smith over the final 20 laps of the 300-mile race on the Speedway’s one-and-a-half-mile oval.
Smith led 111 of the 200 laps but not the last one as both Hill and Allgaier steadily closed in over the race’s closing laps.
Smith held a 3.147-second lead when he crossed the start/finish line on lap 180 but from there the duo of Hill and Allgaier began running him down.
The lead was down to one second with 10 to go.
“With 10 to go, I knew I had a chance,” said Hill. “I noticed he was getting really tight and with two to go, I saw he missed the line. I saw I closed the gap going into Turn 3 on the last lap so I took my shot.”
It worked out.
Allgaier also got past Smith on that final lap to finish second with Smith third.
Í got a little tight here at the end,” said Smith. “It’s a tough pill to swallow but, all-in-all, I can’t be disappointed.”
After winning Friday night’s Camping World truck race, Kyle Busch’s shot at winning all three Las Vegas races this weekend ended with a fourth-place finish.
Josh Berry finished fifth followed by John Hunter Nemechek, Sam Mayer, Riley Herbst, Sheldon Creed, and Daniel Hemric.
There were only four caution flags on the afternoon, three caused by spinouts and the fourth at the end of Stage 1, with no serious accidents.
The first caution came early, on lap 4, after Parker Kligerman spun out coming out of Turn 2. He recovered, eventually finishing 11th.
The second came at the end of Stage 1, a stage won by Nemechek.
The third happened on lap 75 when Berry spun out but he was able to stay off the wall and finish fifth.
A spin by Rajah Caruth on lap 90 was the fourth and final caution, ending Stage 2, with Hill taking the stage win under the caution flag.
It was green-flag racing the rest of the way, from lap 97; when stage 3 began until Hill caught and passed Smith at the end.
“I knew I had to not abuse my tires and work my way through (lapped) traffic,” said Hill. “I saw the 16 (Smith) struggling in traffic. I thought once I got clean air I could hold him off.
“It feels nice to win outside of a superspeedway,” said Hill, who won the season-opener on a superspeedway at Daytona. “It’s good to win on a mile-and-a-half. Now that we’ve won on a mile-and-a-half, I think we can win anywhere.”
Xfinity’s next race will be on the one-mile track at Phoenix Raceway next Saturday, March 11.
The Cup Series wraps up NASCAR’s Las Vegas weekend Sunday with the Pennzoil 400.
Defending Cup Series champion Joey Logano will be on the pole.
Race time is 12:30 p.m., Pacific.