The strategy for most teams coming into Saturday‘s Bennett Transportation & Logistics 250 (5 p.m. ET on The CW, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at EchoPark Speedway near Atlanta looks a whole lot like it did in last weekend’s Daytona season-opener.
The field needs to figure out a way to beat Richard Childress Racing‘s Austin Hill, who is not only the defending winner at his “home” track, but also has won five of the last seven races at the 1.54-miler.
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RELATED: O’Reilly Auto Parts Series standings | EchoPark schedule
Hill, 31, enters the race weekend following a strong victory in the No. 21 RCR Chevrolet last Saturday at Daytona, when he led 78 of 120 laps. His closest challenger was his RCR teammate Jesse Love, who also spent most of the day at Daytona running among the frontrunners before ultimately finishing ninth.
The 2025 spring Atlanta race results actually looked a lot like the season-opening Daytona race last week. Hill and Love set the pace and ultimately Hill edged former series champion Justin Allgaier to the finish line. Last year at EchoPark, Hill led 146 of 163 laps. He has claimed a series record 11 wins at drafting tracks.
And, should Hill win Saturday evening, he would become the first driver in series history to win the first two races of the season multiple times — answering his work in 2024 at Daytona and EchoPark.
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Only three drivers scored top-10 finishes in both EchoPark races last year, but AM Racing‘s Nick Sanchez is the only one competing this weekend. The 24-year-old finished fifth in this race and scored his only career NASCAR O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series victory in June.
Of note, a win for Allgaier in 2026 would give him a victory in 10 straight seasons, an all-time record breaking the mark he currently shares with NASCAR Hall of Famer Mark Martin and Kyle Busch.
NASCAR Cup Series regular Ross Chastain will drive the No. 32 Jordan Anderson Racing Chevrolet in the first of his four scheduled starts this year in the O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series.
Kennametal Pole Qualifying is set for 5 p.m. ET Friday, Feb. 20 (The CW App). Love is the defending polesitter and has won pole position in three of the last four races.
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