Austin Hill Continues NASCAR K&N Pro Series East Winning Streak into 2015 Season

20-year-old Winston, Georgia native Austin Hill started the Hart to Heart Breast Cancer Foundation 150 at New Smyrna Speedway in the pole position and led every lap to the checkers

Austin Hill’s 2015 NASCAR K&N Pro Series season got off to a great start when he claimed his first 21 Means 21 Coors Light Pole Award for qualifying in 18.483 seconds at 93.491 MPH

Austin Hill finished the 2014 NASCAR K&N Pro Series East season with back-to-back wins in the year’s final races at Greenville Pickens Speedway and Dover International Speedway. Despite the all-new NASCAR K&N Pro Series race car chassis and body, Hill managed to continue this momentum into the 2015 NASCAR K&N Pro Series East season opener at New Smyrna Speedway just south of Daytona International Speedway.

Austin Hill is part of the 2014-15 NASCAR Next program designed to help promote young drivers in the NASCAR national and touring series. Hill made his debut in the in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East at Columbus Motor Speedway in 2012 and recorded his first win in September of 2013. It took another year before Hill claimed the top spot in a NASCAR K&N Pro Series East race and it seems as if that win may have given him the confidence he needed to chase down a NASCAR championship.

Hill’s 2015 season got off to an excellent start when he claimed his first 21 Means 21 Coors Light Pole Award for his qualifying time of 18.483 seconds at 93.491 miles per hour. He took this push with him as the race began on the .48-mile high-banked oval race track just south of Daytona. Hill would go on to lead all 150 laps of the race, with only a small challenge coming from rookie Dalton Sargeant on a restart. “I was getting worried on the restarts, five laps was about when my car would really start to get up and really go,” Hill said. “So about five laps I would have to hold them off and then it would finally get going.”

Austin Hill’s only challenge came from NASCAR K&N Pro Series East Rookie of the Year contender Dalton Sargeant and the number 51 Galt Chevrolet on a green-white flag restart

The next NASCAR K&N Pro Series East race will be on April 4th at Greenville Pickens Speedway for the Greenville 150 in South Carolina where Austin Hill is the current defending champion

Dalton Sargeant made quite a NASCAR K&N Pro Series East debut in the Hart to Heart Breast Cancer Foundation 150 at New Smyrna Speedway. Sargeant started ninth following an engine change that morning; however he wasted no time moving toward the front of the pack. “It was just a car length off of first, so it’s a bit disappointing,” said Sargeant. “But overall for my first race in the K&N Pro Series East, we had a really good run.” Dalton is a Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender.

Gray Gaulding finished third in his Krispy Kreme Chevrolet, Scott Heckert finished fourth, and another Rookie of the Year contender, Kyle Benjamin, rounded out the top five. The next NASCAR K&N Pro Series East race will be on April fourth at Greenville Pickens Speedway for the Greenville 150. Austin Hill won the last NASCAR K&N Pro Series East race at that track, and will certainly be hoping for another successful run in Greenville, South Carolina.