Dale Earnhardt Jr. fires back at Austin Hill over comments about JRM not helping him at Daytona

Austin Hill didn’t have any friends in the closing laps of this past Friday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Daytona International Speedway. Hill started on the front row for the final restart but quickly fell back before crashing on the last lap.

After the race, Hill called out JR Motorsports for not helping a fellow Chevrolet team out in Richard Childress Racing. Dale Earnhardt Jr. responded on Tuesday’s “Dale Jr. Download.”

“With all due respect to Austin Hill, he has got the best track record in the Xfinity Series at Daytona [and] Talladega in the last handful of years,” Earnhardt said. “So, I tell my guys, ‘Listen, if you want to run second, help Austin Hill.’ If you push Austin Hill out into the lead with a couple laps to go, he’s f*cking hard to get around.”

RCR has been dominant on superspeedways in recent times. Of the 22 races held on drafting tracks since 2022, RCR has won 11 of them. Nine of those belong to Hill. But Friday at Daytona, Hill couldn’t find anyone to run with him — anyone at JRM, at least.

Austin Hill came up short at Daytona

“We never have the JRM cars help us,” Hill said. “Doesn’t matter if they’re Chevy alliance or not. They don’t help us at all. They’d rather work with a Toyota or Ford than us. We already know that our backs are against the wall with the JRM cars.

“The Toyotas definitely don’t work with us, the Fords actually probably work with us the best. And then there’s some outliers within the Chevy camp that work with us. It’s kind of par for the course.”

Earnhardt has spoken with his drivers about racing Hill at superspeedways. His message? If you want to finish second, help Hill.

“I would agree with that,” Earnhardt said. “I tell our team, ‘If you want to run second, help that 21 all you want.’ You’ll go the front, but your likelihood of beating him and winning the race goes down. Your chances of winning the race go up when you don’t help him. … It isn’t so much personal as it is look, that guy’s the one guy that’s going to be the toughest to beat at that racetrack.

“You kind of have to learn over time that you need to limit how much you help him. If you’re helping him, you’re increasing his chance of winning the race. I would try to do everything I could to make his day as difficult as possible at that particular racetrack.”