Prior to the race at Darlington Raceway in early April, Richard Childress Racing had only run their two full-time cars during the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season. But joining Austin Dillon and Kyle Busch at Darlington was Austin Hill.
Hill competes full-time for Richard Childress Racing in the Xfinity Series and competed in four Cup races for the team last year after making his series debut for the organization in 2022. He finished in 31st place at Darlington.
Then, for the first time since 2015, Richard Childress Racing entered the No. 33 Chevrolet in back-to-back races. Jesse Love, who competes alongside Hill in the Xfinity Series, made his Cup debut in the car at Bristol Motor Speedway, and he also finished in 31st.
But the No. 33 car is not on the entry list at Talladega Superspeedway.
Its absence is not completely unexpected. Since Richard Childress Racing started running the No. 33 part-time again in 2022, they have only entered it in one superspeedway race. Hill competed at Daytona International Speedway back in August and was taken out in a crash.
The No. 33 car was entered in a total of six races last year, and based on how things have gone so far in 2025, one would expect their tally for this year to be in the neighborhood of that number.
In fact, the team have already confirmed that Hill is planning to make four more starts. He is set to compete at the Chicago Street Course in early July and Daytona again in late August before competing at Bristol in mid-September. He is then set to compete at Talladega in mid-October.
The team have not confirmed starts for anybody else in the No. 33 car this season at this time.
There are three non-chartered (open) cars on the entry list for Sunday's 188-lap race around the four-turn, 2.66-mile (4.281-kilometer) high-banked Lincoln, Alabama oval: the No. 44 NY Racing Team Chevrolet for J.J. Yeley, the No. 62 Beard Motorsports Chevrolet for Anthony Alfredo, and the No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet for B.J. McLeod.
The Jack Link's 500 is set to be broadcast live on Fox from Talladega Superspeedway starting at 3:00 p.m. ET this Sunday, April 27. If you have not yet had a chance to start a free trial of FuboTV, do so today and don't miss any of the action!