HAMPTON, Ga. — The strategy for most teams coming into Saturday’s Bennett Transportation & Logistics 250 at Atlanta’s EchoPark Speedway looks a whole lot like it did in the Daytona season-opener last weekend.
The field needs to figure out a way to beat Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Hill, who is not only the defending winner at his “home” track, but has won five of the last seven races at the 1.5-miler.
Hill, 31, comes into the race weekend following a strong victory in the No. 21 RCR Chevrolet at Daytona last Saturday, when he led an impressive 78 of 120 laps. His closest challenger was his RCR teammate Jesse Love, who also spent most of the day at Daytona running among the frontrunners.
The 2025 spring Atlanta race results actually looked a lot like the season-opening Daytona race last week. Hill and Love set the pace and ultimately Hill edged former series champion Justin Allgaier to the finish line. Last year at Atlanta, Hill led a completely dominating 146 of 163 laps. He has claimed a series record 11 wins at drafting tracks.
And…. Should Hill win Saturday evening, he would become the first driver in series history to win the first two races of the season multiple times – answering his work at Daytona and Atlanta in 2024.
Only three drivers scored top-10 finishes in both Atlanta races last year, but AM Racing’s Nick Sanchez is the only one competing this weekend. The 24-year-old finished fifth in this race and scored his only career NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series victory in June.
Of note, a win for Allgaier in 2026 would give him a victory in 10 straight seasons, an all-time record breaking the mark he currently shares with NASCAR Hall of Famer Mark Martin and Kyle Busch.
NASCAR Cup Series regular Ross Chastain will drive the No. 32 Jordan Anderson Racing Chevrolet in the first of his four scheduled starts this year in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series.
