Austin Hill cashes out at the expense of a reckless mistake from his competitors

The NASCAR Xfinity Series rolled into the 0.533-mile Martinsville Speedway the last weekend of March, with 38 determined drivers chasing glory and a $100,000 Dash 4 Cash bonus from Xfinity. As is tradition on Saturdays, the competition was fierce. From daylight to nightfall, the race was packed with aggressive moves, leaving plenty of bent fenders—and even more bruised egos.

The Green Flag dropped with JR Motorsports teammates, Connor Zilisch and Carson Kvapil leading the field to start the U.S. Marine Corps 250. Dash4Cash driver, Austin Hill followed close behind the duo, while Justin Allgaier and Brandon Jones rounded out the top-5 the first 20 laps. It never takes long for the leaders to catch lapped traffic at Martinville, as Zilisch did so before Lap 30, as rookies Christian Eckes and William Sawalich went after it on Lap 50, as Eckes shoved Sawalich up the track going into Turn 3. A few laps later on Lap 56, Corey Day’s #17 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet wheel-hopped going into Turn 1 and made contact with Harrison Burton, while battling for eighth, prompting a caution from NASCAR.

This caution ended Stage 1, which allowed Zilisch to collect those valuable points, while Kvapil, Hill, Allgaier and Phoenix winner, Aric Almirola rounded out the Top-5.

Throughout Stage 2, drivers drove somewhat conservatively, with Zilisch once again winning Stage 2, as Kvapil, William Sawalich, Daniel Dye and Nick Sanchez rounded out the Top-5.

When the Green Flag dropped once again on Lap 133, a few laps passed before another caution came out, due to the #14 of Garrett Smithley going around coming out of Turn 4. Throughout Stage 2, there was a lot of beating and banging, with various drivers getting into each other, destroying cars throughout the entire event.

The highlights below speak for themselves and I’m going to let you, the reader, determine how you feel about this event. NASCAR needs to put their foot down on over-aggressive driving and start utilizing the Black Flag, as I no longer will write in-depth about demolition derbies.

I should note that Sammy Smith’s teammate, Justin Allgaier, was taken out of contention for the $100,000 in that final turn, and in his post-race interview, he claimed that he “had to do it”. Smith has since been fined $25,000 and was docked 25 Championship Points. Thankfully, the event at Darlington the following weekend was much better and I anticipate covering that race before Bristol this weekend.