By David Morgan, Associate Editor
SAN DIEGO – With a little helping hand from above, Austin Hill came away victorious in Saturday’s United Rentals Driven to Serve 250, capitalizing late to deliver a much-needed win for Richard Childress Racing on the street course around Naval Base Coronado.
In the waning laps, Hill was running in third behind then leader Carson Kvapil and second place driver Taylor Gray when the two got together with three laps to go, advancing Gray to the lead and Hill up to second.
As the final trio of laps clicked away, Hill inched closer and closer to Gray’s rear bumper and on the final lap saw his opportunity to pounce, nudging Gray out of the way in Turn 3, putting his No. 21 Chevrolet on top of the board for the final run around the base to the finish.
The win would be Hill’s first on a road or street course and the first for RCR since the passing of Kyle Busch nearly a month ago. After crossing the finish line and securing the win, Hill made his way over to Turn 8, where Busch’s stylized No. 8 is painted on the track, doing his celebratory burnouts there before heading to Victory Lane.
WHAT A FINISH!!!@_AustinHill passes Taylor Gray on the final lap and earns his first career road course victory at San Diego! pic.twitter.com/KxT5LWzdkF
— The CW Sports (@TheCW_Sports) June 21, 2026
.@_AustinHill celebrates around Kyle Busch's No. 8.
It marks @RCRracing's first victory since Kyle's passing. pic.twitter.com/zTaStMJcyy
— The CW Sports (@TheCW_Sports) June 21, 2026
“It’s extremely special just to finally check that box of finally getting a road course win. We’ve been so close, so many times,” said Hill before taking off the hat he was wearing with Busch’s No. 8 emblazoned on it.
“I was just looking for something those last few laps and I’m not going to lie, I started talking to this guy a little bit down the straightaways, I’m like man, Kyle, if you’re here, give me something, right? Like, let me find another gear.
“For whatever reason the car started to come to life, the two leaders came together and when there was blood in the water behind the 54, I knew it was going to be tough to get around him, but it was going to be a battle. And when I got close enough to him, I was very surprised to see how much of a gap I got on him.
“I can’t thank these guys enough. Everyone on this 21 team. Everybody at RCR, ECR, we’ve been through a lot these last several weeks…Man, this is awesome. So cool.”
Team owner Richard Childress choked back tears as he talked about winning with Busch still heavy in the hearts of everyone.
“It’s great. It’s great to win here. We’ve all got Kyle in our hearts, you know? You may not show it on the outside, but you do here,” he said.
Gray would finish the marathon race in second place, explaining that he was struggling with wheelhop in his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota that allowed Hill to be able to close the gap and make the winning move.
“He didn’t do anything wrong. The 21 didn’t get into me. It was all, and the reason he got to me is because I wheel hopped, right? So, I need to go back and figure out how I could have managed the wheel hop better,” said Gray.
“And we’re probably winners right now.”
Sheldon Creed would bring his Haas Factory Team Chevrolet home in third, banking a strong finish in his home state, with Kvapil falling to fourth at the end of the race, and his JR Motorsports teammate Sammy Smith rounding out the top-five finishers.
Despite being in position to win and the contact with Gray taking him out of the running, Kvapil chalked it up to being a lesson learned going forward.
.@Taylor_Gray makes contact with @Carson_Kvapil on the turn and moves into the lead! 😱 pic.twitter.com/Ub4LMkGx2a
— The CW Sports (@TheCW_Sports) June 21, 2026
“It’s pretty easy to go straight to, I got wrecked, and it might have happened, right? He might have went in there and aimed for my left rear quarter panel. I don’t know. But just was really hard racing at the end of the day,” said Kvapil.
“And like I said, everyone on this Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet brought us a really fast car and gave us a shot to win the race and ultimately just needed to let him not get as close as he was. So, kind of going to put that back in the memory book.
“I had a great time here in San Diego. This was a really fun course. I really enjoyed it. Obviously, we ran really good, so it was a lot of fun and look forward to doing more stuff with this.”
The remainder of the top-10 finishers were Jesse Love, Parker Retzlaff, Austin Green, Harrison Burton, and Corey Day.
Day’s top-10 finish came after he started the race with a manhole cover wedged in the grille of his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, triggering a lengthy red flag for officials to go around the course and make sure there were no other problem areas.
He would fall some four laps down in the process, but was awarded all of his laps back due to it the issue being something not of his own making.
The race also featured a second red flag lasting some 43 minutes after a massive crash in Turn 2 after Sam Mayer bounced off the inside wall in Turn 1 and careened back into traffic, collecting some 25 cars in the process.
During that same red flag, a wayward fan jumped the fence and went to talk to Creed as he was stopped on the track before leaping the fence and trying to disappear into the crowd before being apprehended by federal law enforcement officials on the base.
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