For the first time since the April races at Darlington Raceway and Bristol Motor Speedway, Richard Childress Racing are set to field a third car in back-to-back NASCAR Cup Series races. But instead of going from Austin Hill to Jesse Love, their two full-time Xfinity Series drivers, like they did four months ago, they are set to go from Love to Hill.
Love finished in 33rd place in this past weekend's race at Richmond Raceway. It was his third start for the team this season and fifth overall, as he has also made two starts with Beard Motorsports.
Hill has made two Cup starts this year, both for Richard Childress' team, but none since finishing in ninth place, the best finish for the No. 33 Chevrolet since 2011, in the early July race on the streets of Chicago.
Austin Hill back in Cup after Xfinity Series antics
Hill has also not made any Cup Series appearances since his recent Xfinity Series antics, which include a presumably intentional right-rear hook on Aric Almirola at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and an ill-advised move, even if not intentional, on Michael McDowell which led to a 16-car pileup at Watkins Glen International.
Suffice it to say that he has not exactly banked a ton of goodwill with the majority of NASCAR's fanbase in recent weeks, and some have called into question NASCAR allowing him to run the regular season finale at Daytona.
However, this should not be viewed as a huge deal for a number of reasons. First of all, NASCAR did punish Hill after the Indy incident, despite his insistence that it wasn't intentional and Childress' less-than-stellar public attitude about it, and the lack of clear intent at Watkins Glen kept him in their good graces, at least on that occasion.
Secondly, Hill is somewhat of a superspeedway specialist in the Xfinity Series, and that has led to him being given a number of opportunities to run Cup Series superspeedway races in recent years. He has made a total of four Cup Series superspeedway starts, and those starts include the summer Daytona race in both 2023 and 2024. Denying him another one in 2025 would not make much sense.
And finally, despite Hill's reputation in the Xfinity Series, it's not like he's going to show up and start wrecking people in a Cup race.
At no point during his limited time in the Cup Series has he demonstrated anything like what we've seen from him in his regular series, and while anything can happen in a drafting race, there's no reason to believe he is going to cause chaos, or at the very least, be any more susceptible to causing chaos than anybody else at a track known for producing the "Big One".
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