Austin Hill holds on, wins NASCAR O'Reilly Series season opener at Daytona

For the fourth time in five years, Austin Hill won the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series season opener at Daytona International Speedway. 

The 31-year-old from Winston, Ga., held off a last-lap charge from Brennan Poole on the backstretch before Poole was jostled out of position. Neither Justin Allgaier or Jordan Anderson count mount a charge in the race's waning moments, and Hill scored his 15th career win on a night where he led 78 laps and swept the stages from the pole.

Hill took four tires on Lap 93, and while the move set him back to 12th, he was able to carve his way back to the front of the field in less than 10 laps and maintain control of the race to the end.

"I love these guys, man," Hill told CW Sports. "I wanted to work with with my teammate at the end, Jesse (Love). Everyone's trying to [mess]  everybody over. I thought the bottom lane was the best thing for me. Daytona's been so good to me, I love this place."

Hill is the fourth O'Reilly Auto Parts Series driver to win on Valentine's Day, joining Geoff Bodine in 1987, Joe Nemechek in 1998 and Tony Stewart in 2009.

Saturday's race saw several big crashes, including one as the field took the green flag, while Chevrolet locked up the top-20 positions in the final running order. 

Notable results

Allgaier, Ryan Sieg, Anderson and Sammy Smith rounded out the top five, with Ryan Ellis, Carson Kvapil, Blaine Perkins, Jesse Love and Rajah Caruth completing the top 10.

Other notable finishers include Poole in 12th, Carson Hocevar in 20th, Sheldon Creed in 24th, Corey Day in 27th and Sam Mayer in 31st. 

Hill leads the series points standings as the circuit prepares to head to his home track of EchoPark Speedway in Hampton, Ga., where he is a five-time winner.