Austin Hill was able to secure his second career top-10 finish last Thursday night in the Buckle Up in Your Truck 225 at Kentucky Speedway.
It was just his second start at Kentucky Speedway where he previously had a best finish of 18th at the track last season. Fittingly, 18th is where the No. 02 Whitetail Heaven Outfitters Ford F-150 started after qualifying was cancelled and the field was set by the NASCAR Rule Book.
Hill moved through the field rather quickly and found himself inside the top-10 through most of Stage 1. Hill was able to cross the Green-White Checker flag to secure his first stage point of the evening finishing 10th. He brought the No. 02 truck down pit road for four fresh tires and fuel along with a spring rubber adjustment.
Hill restarted the race in 15th and once again started passing trucks, but wouldn’t make it back into the top-10 before the end of the stage. Since Hill isn’t running the full season, the team made the decision to improve on the truck for the final stage rather than focus on earning stage points.
Hill pitted for fuel only on Lap 106 and restarted 12th. As the laps wound down, Hill battled with the 10th and 11th place trucks and eventually passed them both to bring home his best finish of 2017.
“My Young’s Motorsports crew built an incredibly fast and well-handled F-150 for me this weekend at Kentucky Speedway. The truck handled traffic well and allowed me to execute passes as long as I could keep the momentum up. We’ve had a string of bad luck entering the summer stretch and I hope this result shows what we are capable of and sets things in motion for our next race at Pocono Raceway. I can’t thank Whitetail Heaven Outfitters enough for coming on board for this race and bringing all of their guests out to the track. It was a great experience and I look forward to working with them more in the future.”
