Since shifting to full-time NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Elements Sequence racing in 2022, Austin Hill has outlined consistency. It catapulted him to the 2023 Common Season Championship as a sophomore.
That consistency, nevertheless, is lacking via the primary 14 races of the 2026 season, regardless of profitable the season opener at Daytona Worldwide Speedway for the fourth time in 5 years. Final weekend at Dover Motor Speedway, the No. 21 workforce banked its first top-five end since Circuit of The Americas, snapping a 10-race drought, the longest of Hill’s O’Reilly profession.
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“It’s been a kind of curler coaster begins to the season,” Hill advised NASCAR.com. “We haven’t carried out like we should always. The complete 21 workforce is aware of it. We’ve proven indicators of fine runs.
“I believe there’s mild on the finish of the tunnel. We’re nonetheless a contender; we’re nonetheless a top-five workforce each time we go on the race observe. It’s simply placing these races collectively, minimizing our errors on the observe and minimizing issues which have occurred with the race that the surface world doesn’t see, however we see it. If we are able to clear all that stuff up, I believe you will note us again inside the highest 5 in factors, and you will note us again up entrance, contending to win races.”
With the fifth-place effort on the “Monster Mile,” Hill sits 50 factors under Brandon Jones for that benchmark. He trails Sammy Smith by solely three factors for sixth within the championship standings.
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Hill sees promise inside the No. 21 workforce because it makes an attempt to climb again to the highest. He positioned sixth at Martinsville Speedway, a observe he usually wrestles with. On the flip aspect, Bristol Motor Speedway continues to be a hindrance for Richard Childress Racing. Intermediate venues, the place Hill usually excels, have been spotty.
“Our expectations for the 21 is to be profitable races,” Danny Lawrence, RCR’s vp, alliance operations director, O’Reilly Auto Elements Sequence, advised NASCAR.com. “No person is completely happy if you don’t win. Our largest focus proper now could be execution throughout the board. The pace has been there every so often. We simply have to execute higher.”
Austin Hill drives the No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet at Watkins Glen Worldwide.
Regardless of the irregular begin for Hill, his common ending place is barely 0.3 positions worse than a rough-and-tumble 2025 season. However the highs had been greater in earlier seasons, reaching double-digit high fives in all 4 years and by no means having fewer than 18 top-10 finishes. He’s on tempo to have profession lows in each classes.
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That’s aggravating for a driver who has made a residing being regular.
“It’s been very irritating and mentally taxing on me as a driver,” Hill stated. “Simply because I had these massive talks about liking that we had been going this route with The Chase format, and that consistency was going to be enormous, and that might work effectively for our 21 workforce. To start out the season off earlier within the yr, I’m like, that is the 21 workforce, that is what we do, we run inside the highest 5 each week. Then, it slowly digressed.
“I believe it’s beginning to come again round for us. I nonetheless do suppose the best way the format is, it’s going to learn our workforce and the way we carry out each week. You’re going to have these slumps, and we’re going via just a little little bit of a droop. I’d reasonably have it early within the season like we’re having it now than later within the yr when The Chase comes.”
The O’Reilly dip extends all through the RCR camp, which incorporates defending champion Jesse Love and the No. 2 workforce, with solely a pair of high fives within the final 10 occasions. That is along with the challenges inside the RCR partitions on the Cup aspect. Of late, nevertheless, the Cup program at RCR , with each full-time drivers ending inside the highest 10 at Watkins Glen Worldwide.
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Crew spirit has been put via the wringer within the opening three months of the NASCAR season, however Lawrence is optimistic the legacy workforce can flip it round.
“We’re not in panic mode,” Lawrence stated. “I believe you’re going to see the development. Prime fives are nice, however it’s not what we would like. We need to be profitable. Our plan is for Austin Hill and Jesse to win 9 races every. We’re going to maintain engaged on it and pushing onerous.”
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To have a reputable shot on the 2026 title, Hill believes he must rank inside the highest 5 in factors. That may put him inside putting distance of Justin Allgaier, who’s at present on a runaway with the Common Season Championship, two-and-a-half races forward of second-place Sheldon Creed. The following O’Reilly race is slated for Saturday at Charlotte Motor Speedway (5 p.m. ET, The CW, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
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“To be comfy, a naked minimal fifth,” Hill stated. “I might nonetheless be disenchanted in that, however naked minimal, we have to be fifth for after we get carried out with the common season and go into The Chase. Good case can be someplace within the high three. I nonetheless suppose that’s obtainable and reachable.
“There are a good quantity of races developing that we’ve left to do, and if we are able to do what we expect we are able to do and begin being constant every week, and another guys begin having some points, it might deliver us proper again into it.”
