WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — Austin Hill controlled the middle stages of Saturday’s United Rentals 176 for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series at Watkins Glen Int’l and earned his second consecutive victory in a race that was shortened because of lightning.
The race was red flagged with 11 laps to go and after a delay of more than an hour and with the NASCAR Xfinity Series still scheduled to take to the scenic New York road course later in the afternoon, officials declared the race official.
Hill won the second stage and kept his Hattori Enterprises Toyota ahead of the pack, with regular season series champion John Hunter Nemechek close behind in his Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota, setting himself up for victory.
“It was nerve racking that is for sure. I didn’t know if we were going to go green or not,” said Hill, who earned his first victory of the season in the most recent race for the series at Knoxville (Iowa) Raceway. It feels so good to win on a road course. I’ve been wanting to win on a road course for a long time. I’ve felt like I get around a road course fairly decent. Finally, we had a race that did everything we needed it to do.
“When the rain came, I was biting my nails and I didn’t really know what to do.”
Nemechek was credited with second place in what was the final race of the regular season. He’ll have the No. 1 seed when the playoffs begin Aug. 20 at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway.
Sheldon Creed finished third in a Chevrolet, with Todd Gilliland, who won the opening stage, bringing his Ford home in fourth. Parker Kligerman finished fifth.
Hill will be the second seed in the playoffs with Ben Rhodes, Gilliland and Sheldon Creed also qualifying based on winning races this season.
Making it into the playoffs on points were Zane Smith, Matt Crafton, Carson Hocevar, Stewart Friesen and Chandler Smith. Smith, who originally finished 18th Saturday, was later disqualified by NASCAR when his truck failed post-race inspection. The disqualification does not impact the playoff field.