Austin Hill did not have the best Friday night at Las Vegas NASCAR Truck Playoffs which earned him a place in the semi-final round of the Series Playoffs. Hill took the lead for the first time after race restart on lap 96 of the 134 laps, as Sheldon Creed who had led for 89 laps tried to take on Hill, but the attempts failed.
Sheldon Creed had come into contact with the wall as he was trying to get Hill but however managed to come 0.546 seconds behind Hill who led the race. This is the second win for Hill in 2020 and 6th victory of his career.
“Right after Bristol, right after they took the checkered flag, I said ‘Let’s keep our heads up. We’re going to go to Vegas and win it’ and, heck, we did it,” Austin Hill said.
“We didn’t have the best truck by no means. We had to fight a lot of adversity. In Stages 1 and 2 we weren’t good at all. The guys kept working on it. The pit crew did a hell of a job and I just had to go out there and get it and that’s what we did.”
“Sheldon was definitely way faster than me. I was probably looking in my mirror more than I was looking out front. I knew he was better than we were. I knew I was going to have to protect.”
Tanner Gray completed the race third, Stewart Frisen and Chandler Smith rounded out the top five as they were 4th and 5th respectively. Grant Enfinger, Zane Smith, Christian Eckes, Matt Crafton and Tyler Ankrum rounded up the top 10 drivers in the series playoffs. The next week’s race at Talladega will be the final race of the first rounds of the playoffs meaning that the lowest two drivers in points without a win will be eliminated in the fight for the Championship contention.
All the drivers pit following the break between stage 2 and 3 and Creed was the first to come off the pits on the race restart on lap 68 as he continued to maintain the lead. After going wide, Creed was overtaken by Eckes on lap 69 but later on lap 73 Creed re-took the lead.
On lap 78 Derek Kraus moved into second as Moffitt followed closely in 3rd. On lap 84, Ben Rhodes spun out on Turn 2 after contact with Friesen bringing out a caution and all the leading trucks pit. Creed maintained the lead on the race restart on lap 90 followed by Kraus and Johnny Sauter. Jordan Anderson got stopped at the exit of the pit road on lap 90 which brought the caution back out. On lap 96 the race was back on as Creed lead the race followed by Hill and Eckes. Hill later took the lead as Friesen came second.
On lap 124 Creed came into contact with the wall as he was trying to take down Hill but still remained second. Friesen was in third as creed tried to close in on hill up to the end of the race.
