Austin Hill scores first Truck win in chaotic Daytona opener

After winning the series title last year with driver Brett Moffitt, Austin Hill took over the No. 16 Toyota and powered to a victory in Friday night’s season opener at Daytona International Speedway.

On the restart of the second overtime, Hill got out to a sizable lead over Matt Crafton and Spencer Boyd. Hill managed to stay out front and held off Grant Enfinger to claim his first series win in his 52nd career start.

“Man, this truck was fast, it really was. I knew we had a truck that could compete,” Hill said in Victory Lane. “I got a little scared there at the end. I thought (Enfinger) was going to get me, he had a big run.

“I can’t believe my first win came at Daytona. It’s so surreal. I can’t wait to party with these guys.”

Hill said even though he was reminded constantly to save fuel at the end of the race, Hill said he had little confidence he had gotten the job done.

“We pitted really early and we already knew it was going to be close and then then when we went overtime, I was so scared,” he said. “I just knew I was going to run out off (Turn) 4 and not make it to the line.

“So much stuff was going through my head, but – hey – we’re in Victory Lane.”

Ross Chastain was third, Boyd was fourth and Crafton ended up fifth.

On Lap 53 of the scheduled 100, while coming off Turn 4, Jordan Anderson got into Sheldon Creed which triggered a massive accident that collected nearly a dozen trucks.

Among those who suffered extensive damage and taken out of contention were Moffitt, Johnny Sauter, Christian Eckes, Brennan Poole and Myatt Snider.

The race returned to green on Lap 63 only to return to caution one lap later when Eckes’ truck erupted in flames coming down the frontstretch. He was unhurt.

The race returned to green on Lap 70, with Hill leading the way.

On Lap 77, Cory Roper, running fourth, spun off Turn 4 after hitting Rhodes and slammed into the inside retaining wall to bring out another caution. Rhodes grabbed the lead just before the caution was displayed.

On the restart on Lap 84, Hill was out front followed by Ben Rhodes and Clay Greenfield.

With 13 to go, Rhodes got a push into the lead as Stewart Friesen moved into second and Gus Dean into third.

On Lap 89, Todd Gilliland got into his Kyle Busch Motorsports teammate, Harrison Burton, sending both into the wall off Turn 2 and brought out a caution. The race returned to green with seven laps remaining.

Clay Greenfield and Timothy Peters wrecked on the restart lap, bringing out the caution once again. The race restarted with three laps to go with Rhodes out front, followed by Hill and Dean.

With just over one lap to go, Creed got into Dean, who got knocked into leader Rhodes to trigger another big wreck and send the race into the first overtime.

Stage 2

Sauter held off a wild charge from Friesen to claim the victory in the second stage.

Rhodes was third, David Gilliland was fourth and Boyd was fifth.

The second stage went green on Lap 27 with Sauter leading the way followed by Enfinger and Moffitt.

Just after Moffitt took the lead on Lap 27, a three-truck wreck erupted behind him involving Ray Ciccarelli, Tyler Dippel and Chris Fontaine. Eckes also appeared to suffer some front-end damage in the incident.

The race returned to green on Lap 34 with Moffitt in the lead followed by Sauter and Creed.

On the restart, Moffitt and Creed were black-flagged for locking bumpers, which left Sauter in the lead.

With five laps left, Sauter led the way followed by Enfinger and Todd Gilliland.

Todd Gilliland moved into the lead with two laps left in the stage but Sauter quickly retook the lead with one to go.

Stage 1

Creed easily held off Hill to win the first stage of the 2019 season.

On Lap 3, Natalie Decker got a flat right-front tire after hitting debris on the track and fire erupted under her hood from a broken oil line. She quickly brought her truck down to pit road.

While the race was placed under caution, Bryan Dauzat brought his truck down pit road, the driver’s cockpit clouded with smoke. Without any brakes he ran over one of his crew member, Billy Rock, who waiting for Dauzat to stop in his stall.

“I just lost brakes when I was coming in. He jumped out in front. I told him, 'I have no brakes.' And he came out in front,” Dauzat said.

The crew member was loaded on a stretcher and transported to a local hospital for further evaluation.

During the incident, David Gilliland, Decker’s teammate, also ran over debris and suffered a flat tire. He was able to return to the race.

The race returned to green on Lap 9 with Creed leading the way, followed by Moffitt and Enfinger.

With five laps left in the first stage, Creed held a small advantage over Moffitt and followed by Eckes.

Both Burton and Robby Lyons had to start the race from the rear of the field – Burton for an engine change and Lyons for unapproved adjustments.

Cla	#	Driver	Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Laps Led	Status	Points
1	16	Austin Hill	Toyota	111		39		49
2	98	Grant Enfinger	Ford	111	0.278			46
3	45	Ross Chastain	Chevrolet	111	0.413
4	20	Spencer Boyd	Chevrolet	111	0.675			39
5	88	Matt Crafton	Ford	111	0.721			32
6	33	Josh Reaume	Chevrolet	111	3.422	1		31
7	44	Timothy Peters	Chevrolet	111	8.160			30
8	8	Angela Ruch	Chevrolet	111	18.589	2		29
9	22	Austin Wayne Self	Chevrolet	111	24.856			34
10	52	Stewart Friesen	Chevrolet	108	2 laps		Accident	36
11	63	Bobby Gerhart	Chevrolet	105	5 laps		Accident	26
12	68	Clay Greenfield	Chevrolet	103	7 laps		Accident	29
13	17	David Gilliland	Toyota	100	10 laps	16	Accident	31
14	99	Ben Rhodes	Ford	98	12 laps	11	Accident	31
15	12	Gus Dean	Chevrolet	98	12 laps		Accident	22
16	87	Joe Nemechek	Chevrolet	98	12 laps		Accident	21
17	2	Sheldon Creed	Chevrolet	98	12 laps	21	Accident	30
18	18	Harrison Burton	Toyota	89	21 laps		Accident	21
19	4	Todd Gilliland	Toyota	88	22 laps	1	Accident	22
20	04	Cory Roper	Ford	76	34 laps		Accident	17
21	27	Myatt Snider	Ford	62	48 laps		Accident	23
22	51	Christian Eckes	Toyota	61	49 laps	1	Accident	23
23	13	Johnny Sauter	Ford	60	50 laps	12	Accident	24
24	30	Brennan Poole	Toyota	55	55 laps		Accident	15
25	3	Jordan Anderson	Chevrolet	53	57 laps		Accident	12
26	24	Brett Moffitt	Chevrolet	53	57 laps	7	Accident	18
27	47	Chris Fontaine	Toyota	27	83 laps		Accident	10
28	49	Ray Ciccarelli	Chevrolet	27	83 laps		Accident	9
29	02	Tyler Dippel	Chevrolet	23	87 laps		Accident	8
30	42	Robby Lyons	Chevrolet	16	94 laps		Accident	7
31	28	Bryan Dauzat	Chevrolet	2	108 laps		Accident	6
32	54	Natalie Decker	Toyota	1	109 laps		Accident	5