TC Daily Pit Stop: Austin Hill Takes Xfinity Win As Zilisch Crashed From Lead; Zane Smith Secures First Cup Pole; Sunday's TV Schedule

TC Daily Pit Stop: Sunday, April 27th, 2025

Apr 27, 2025

Photo Credit: Dirk Bizub | TobyChristie.com

Austin Hill has officially become the winningest driver in NASCAR Xfinity Series history on superspeedway-style tracks. The driver of the No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet took his ninth such win in Saturday’s Ag-Pro 300 at Talladega Superspeedway, but it wasn’t an obvious dominating performance like we’re accustomed to from Hill.

It actually wasn’t clear initially whether Hill had even won the race. Connor Zilisch had the lead of the race on the final lap, but was turned on the backstretch by Jesse Love. As Zilisch pounded the inside wall, the field was frozen as the caution came out.

After several minutes of analyzing the footage and the time stamps of the caution flag, NASCAR determined that Hill had narrowly defeated Jeb Burton for the win.

Hill now has three wins this season, and he’s up to 13 career NASCAR Xfinity Series victories.

Zane Smith Earns Maiden Cup Series Pole at Talladega

Zane Smith, who has quietly put together a solid 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season with Front Row Motorsports, knocked out a career-first on Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway. The 25-year-old racer picked up his first career NASCAR Cup Series pole position as he was the fastest driver in both rounds of Saturday’s qualifying session.

Smith’s pole was secured with a 52.565-second (182.174 mph) lap time in the final round of qualifying. Smith, who was the final car to take to the track in the session, knocked Kyle Busch from the provisional pole.

“I wish I could take a lot of the credit for it, but truthfully, just a really fast [Front Row Motorsports] Ford,” Smith said after qualifying. “TitleMax on the car, just so cool. A polesitter in the Cup Series, that’s awesome.”