What happened to Austin Hill at the end of Talladega NASCAR Cup race?

Austin Hill is one of the most impressive drivers at drafting tracks in the secondary level of NASCAR, earning four wins at Daytona, two at Talladega, and five at the reconfigured Atlanta.

While still fairly new to the Cup Series, he got to showcase some of that superspeedway prowess this weekend. Driving the No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, he qualified on the outside of the front row, led six laps, and was in contention for the race win.

He was pushing Kyle Larson ahead of the pack on the final restart, but shuffled him out as he made a daring three-wide pass on the white flag lap. He was suddenly second, chasing Ricky Stenhouse Jr. down for what could have been his first-ever Cup win at the exit of Turn 4.

Abruptly, the No. 33 then slowed and pulled down to the apron, finishing 14th as the last driver on the lead lap in a heartbreaking end for Hill. It was shaping up to be career-best day with a potential win in sight, only for it to crumble in the final seconds of the event.

But what actually happened?

“We were close,” said Hill after the race. “Our United Rentals Chevrolet was good and we worked all day to put ourselves in a position at the end. Made moves when we had to, pushed and stayed in line when we needed to. The car had speed and I’m proud of the work the guys put in to qualify on the front row and have a shot at the win.

“Just lost power coming to the checkered.”

If you ride along with Hill via the onboard camera, the team tells him to back up to Gilliland to get a run on Stenhouse, which he does. After that, he’s told: “Hold it wide open, take him one way or another here.”

But right as Hill went to pounce on Stenhouse for the race win, the car suddenly lost speed and cut out as he quickly yanked it down onto the apron. The spotter speculated that they were out of fuel as he crawled across the line at 120mph, and decreasing.

“[Inaudible] I completely lost power,” radioed Hill. 

“You lost power, altogether?”

“Yep, f*** those switches. I’m never doing that again.”

It’s unclear what switch he was referring to, but it was possibly the fuel reserve switch. He finally got the car re-fired down the backstretch on the cool-down lap, and drove it back to the pits without further issue.

Hill is set to compete full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series next year for the first time in his career, filling the renumbered RCR seat after the tragic passing of Kyle Busch earlier this year.

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– The Motorsport.com Team