Hill Declared Winner After Last-Lap Talladega Melee

TALLADEGA, Ala. — Another race at Talladega Superspeedway brought another bizarre finish Saturday afternoon.

Austin Hill was declared the winner after the field was frozen following a last-lap crash involving Jesse Love and Connor Zilisch.

Hill, Jeb Burton and Jesse Love were three wide when the yellow flag waved when race leader Zilisch hit the wall after contact from Love at the front of the field.

After reviewing the video and the scoring loops, NASCAR officials declared Hill the winner.

The Richard Childress Racing driver earned his 13th series victory and his ninth on a superspeedway.

“Man, we really had to work for that one,” said Hill. “It just seemed like our car was really good. Everyone at RCR and RCR engines are bad to the bone, like always. We had to work. I thought the 2 (Love) was really good and when we got the push from the 2 going into [turn] one, he got inside of me and I thought that was a bad mistake and I should have covered it. So I thought we were done. But I just locked in and kept pushing the heck out of the 2-car.

“I knew it was either me or the 27 [Burton],” said Hill, who earned his third victory of the season. “Man, to win them – any way you win them is always great – and finally to conquer Talladega, that’s something I’ve really wanted to do for a long time.

“We’ve won at all these other superspeedways and to finally get it done at all the different superspeedways we go to, it just shows the 21 team can win at any of them and we’re really good at this style of racing.”

Burton, who has two previous victories at Talladega believed he was the winner at the 2.66-mile superspeedway.

“I felt like we did everything we could today, so just frustrated,” said the driver of the Jordan Anderson Racing No. 27. “Every angle I see, we won the race. Just appreciate my guys. We do a lot with a little team. We don’t have a lot of chances to win, you know. That’s what’s frustrating.”

Love, who won last year’s race at Talladega, finish third after leading a race-high 50 laps.

“I’m pretty sure I wrecked my best friend, I’m going to owe him an apology,” Love said regarding Zilisch. “I just got really good pushes there at the end and I was able to lift enough off of [turn] two to get really good pushes. I kind of thought we’d made our bed and were not in position to win, but I was able to get Austin [Hill] connected to me and he was able to give me a push down the backstretch and get rolling again.”

Reigning series champion Justin Allgaier was fourth, with Matt DiBenedetto fifth.

Anthony Alfredo, Blaine Perkins, Harrison Burton, Sheldon Creed and Daniel Dye completed the top 10.