Austin Hill
Born: April 21, 1994 · Winston, Georgia Car: No. 21 Chevrolet · Richard Childress Racing · NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series Crew Chief: Chad Haney Sponsor: Bennett Transportation & Logistics
⚠️ Cup substitution — May 21, 2026: Hill will drive Richard Childress Racing's No. 8 Chevrolet in the NASCAR Cup Series Coca-Cola 600 (Sunday, May 24), filling in for Kyle Busch, who is out for the weekend due to an unspecified health matter, RCR announced May 21. Hill continues in his full-time No. 21 O'Reilly Auto Parts Series ride.
2026 Season
Austin Hill is fourth in the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series standings through eight races, and he's already done what he does best: win at Daytona. The 2026 Daytona victory was Hill's 15th career O'Reilly win and his 11th in a drafting-style race — an all-time record in that discipline. Through eight races he's led 125 laps with zero DNFs, strong markers for a title campaign.
Career
Hill's résumé is that of a proven national-series front-runner. He won the O'Reilly regular-season championship in 2023, reached the Championship 4 in 2024, and has won races in every full-time season with RCR. He also won the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series regular-season title in 2020, making him one of the few active O'Reilly Series drivers with multi-series championships on his ledger.
The frame that follows Hill — "superspeedway specialist" — is outdated. He's a full-field contender whose highest concentration of wins happens to include drafting tracks. The 2026 story is whether he can make the title picture revolve around him at every venue type.
The Story
Hill has already proven he can win. What he's still building is seasonal authority — the kind that makes a title run feel inevitable rather than earned on individual weekends. With Chad Haney returning for another season atop the box and RCR equipment that ranked among the series' best a year ago, the pieces are in place. The question is conversion.