Austin Hill held off challenges from Chandler Smith and Corey Heim to claim his ninth career victory as a NASCAR Xfinity Series driver. Seven of his nine victories came on slipstream tracks, including four in Atlanta.

“We had to dig deep for that,” said Hill, a Georgia native. “The No. 81 (Smith) came into (Turn) 3 and passed me. He does what he has to do to try to win. I’m very surprised the No. 26 (Heim) pushed me there and didn’t go with a Toyota.”

“I thought I made a mistake in turns 1 and 2 and I hate that he went into the fence. I didn’t mean to force him into the fence. I just wanted to loosen him up aerodynamically.”

Race winner Austin Hill, Richard Childress Racing, Chevrolet Camaro

Photo by: Nigel Kinrade / NKP / Motorsport Images

Hill had two Toyota drivers right behind him heading to the finish. Smith was able to get past him, but fellow Toyota driver Corey Heim was no help. Instead, he decided to push Hill and moved into second place with a chance of his first ever Xfinity win.

In Turn 1 on the final lap, Heim passed Hill on the outside but hit the outside wall, ending his chances of winning. Parker Kligerman and AJ Allmendinger then shot past, but they were unable to catch Hill before the checkered flag. Kligerman crossed the finish line in second and Allmendinger in third. Smith finished a disappointing fourth and Heim in fifth.

Smith wasn’t too happy with his teammate’s decision not to be a team player at the end. “Yeah (that surprises me), we’re Toyota teammates,” he told NBC Sports. “I came out of the restart zone and I could have stayed down and stayed up to be the leader. I didn’t do that. I stayed up with my Toyota teammate. That’s what ultimately caused me to give up the lead.” Smith was referring to the restart with 14 laps to go, when he controlled the race but stayed in the lane while Hill passed him on the inside. That ended up being the decisive move.

“I was expecting my Toyota teammate to come along, but that didn’t happen. It is what it is, but we had a really fast No. 81 Supra all day. I feel like I’ve unfortunately been denied three Atlanta wins here in my career. I’m a little bit speechless, to be honest. There are a lot of things I could have done. I could have been more selfish and gone all the way down when I was free to make up for it and just control the race, but I tried to be a good teammate and that didn’t pay off for me today, as usual.”

Race winner Austin Hill, Richard Childress Racing, Chevrolet Camaro

Photo by: Lesley Ann Miller / Motorsport Images

Heim, of course, saw it differently and questioned the timing of Smith’s maneuver. “Ultimately, the maneuver should have been done on a straightaway, not in the middle of the corner. So if he wanted me to push him past, I think I would have been happy to push him if he had just dropped back to my bumper on the straightaway out of (Turn) 4 and we both had a chance to win the race. He had no chance or momentum, so why go to the end of that point? I came here to win the race.

“For a team like Sam Hunt Racing to have a chance to get their first win, I wanted to give them that chance. There’s no point going down in the middle of the corner and trying to pass the leader. The best car of the day was the No. 21 (Hill). It just wasn’t in my best interest. It wasn’t in his best interest either. I’m not sure why he decided to go down.”

Heim added that the only thing that will be discussed in next week’s team meeting will be the timing of the change. This incident is reminiscent of what happened at the end of the NASCAR Cup race at Daytona, when Parker Retzlaff pushed Harrison Burton’s Ford around fellow Chevrolet driver Kyle Busch, costing his manufacturer the race win. Busch later said Retzlaff didn’t owe him anything in the race up to the checkered flag.