Austin Hill joins NASCAR royalty Dale Earnhardt and Tony Stewart with 'Three-peat' during Daytona Xfinity race

The NASCAR Xfinity Series season opener at Daytona International Speedway saw Richard Childress Racing's Austin Hill cement his name with some of the sport's biggest names in history. Despite the United Rentals 300 starting on Monday night after a weather delay over the weekend, the race saw a full 300 miles of racing.

The driver of the #21 Chevrolet Camaro for Richard Childress's racing outfit, Austin Hill, managed to take the checkered flag in P1 for the third consecutive year in 2024, adding his name to a list dominated by two heavyweights who accomplished the same. The 29-year-old driver joined late legend Dale Earnhardt and current team owner Tony Stewart in winning three successive season-openers in the sport.

Despite suffering from a flat tire and being involved in a crash earlier in the race, Hill managed to hold on to his position as the checkered flag waved during the final two laps, being chased by Jordan Anderson and the rest of the field.

Elaborating on the unique achievement dubbed the 'Three-peat', Hill told newsjournalonline.com:

"It tops it all, Three-peat, do you know how hard it is to win at Daytona? God almighty. I don’t even know what time it is, I know it’s past my bedtime, but we’re about to party tonight, I’ll tell you that."

Meanwhile, Hendrick Motorsports' William Byron managed to win the 66th running of the famed Daytona 500 on Monday, well before the Xfinity Series race started in a unique scheduling medley courtesy of weather conditions over the weekend.

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Austin Hill elaborates on his mindset coming into the race at Daytona

Despite having people around him trying to rile him up for the unique 'Three-peat' achievement even before the green flag dropped on Monday, Austin Hill elaborated on how his goals for the weekend were clear.

He elaborated on his mindset going into the race and told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio:

"When we came in through the tunnel, everyone's kinda joked around, 'Oh, three-peat, three-peat, three-peat'. My goal was to go out there, do what I do best try to lead laps and lanes, control my destiny and hope there's a little bit of luck involved."

Meanwhile, NASCAR prepares to go racing this coming weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Georgia, starting with the Truck Series going live on Saturday, February 24.