Connor Zilisch gets wrecked from the lead, Austin Hill wins Talladega Xfinity

It seems inevitable at this point, but Austin Hill is once again the winner at a superspeedway track. Connor Zilisch was in control of the race on the final lap, but an unfriendly bump from his friend Jesse Love sent the JR Motorsports driver spinning across the back stretch. Zilisch slammed the inside wall hard, and the caution flag promptly waved.

Austin Hill, who was narrowly ahead at the time of caution, now has 13 career NASCAR Xfinity wins — eight at drafting tracks. But surprisingly, this is actually his first at Talladega, coming after he and Richard Childress Racing teammate Love dominated most of the event.

“Man, we really had to work for that one,” said Hill, who got showered with boos from the fans. “It just seemed like our car was really good. Everybody at RCR, ECR engines are bad to the bone like always. But yeah, we had to work for it. I thought the #2 [Love] was really good.”

He continued: “I just locked in and started pushing the heck out of the #2 [Love] car. My teammate Jesse, we worked really well together all day for the most part. I was pushing as hard as I possible could on the top. I knew he was going to have a really good run down the backstretch, and I figured he was going to go left to get the bottom and when he went left, I knew I still had help out back. I see him [Zilisch] spin to the inside and I’m looking left, looking at the light, and I couldn’t tell. I knew it was either me or the #27 [Burton]. Man, to win them any way is always great and to finally conquer Talladega — that’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time.”

At the moment of caution, it was unclear who won the race. NASCAR reviewed the finish closely as Love, Hill, and Jeb Burton parked their cars on the frontstretch. After some deliberation, NASCAR officials finally declared Hill the winner, Burton as the second-place finisher, and Love as the driver in third. Justin Allgaier was scored in fourth and Matt Dibenedetto fifth.

Burton alter questioned the decision by NASCAR, still believing he had won the race. He has two previous Xfinity wins, both of which came at Talladega, but none yet this year. “We don’t have a lot of chances to win,” said Burton as tears began to flow from his eyes.

Burton indicated that his team may protest the result, or at the very least seek clarification from NASCAR with hopes of seeing a better angle of the moment of caution. Here are some alternate angles of the exact moment the yellow was triggered by race control:

The race went 79 laps incident-free before the first caution for cause. But the final run featured several incidents, including a multi-car wreck that eliminated Katherine Legge and Jeffrey Earnhardt from competition.