Officials from Young’s Motorsports announced today that Winston, Ga. native Austin Hill (@_AustinHill) will compete for the team full-time in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) in 2018 beginning with the Feb. 16 running of the NextEra Energy Resources 250 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway.
Hill, who has run a partial schedule this season with Young’s Motorsports will be paired with veteran crew chief Chad Kendrick and pilot the team’s flagship truck, the No. 02 Chevrolet Silverado.
Young’s Motorsports based in Mooresville, N.C. is hopeful to expand their presence in the series next season with a competitive two-truck program with details of the team’s second team announced at a later date.
“It’s really a dream come true, to be able to compete full-time in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series next season, and that wouldn’t be possible without the support of Tyler Young and Young’s Motorsports,” said Hill.
Tyler Young, team principal and Young’s Motorsports driver is enthusiastic about the opportunity to work with Hill for a full 23-race schedule next year.
“We have worked hard over the past year to be able to grow Young’s Motorsports and that is starting to come to fruition now,” says Young, a native of Midland, Texas.
“Austin brings a lot to the table with his ability behind the wheel but also a flawless work ethic and the determination and desire to improve with each given race.
“2018 will be the first time that Young’s Motorsports has run full-time with one driver, in two years and hopefully we can do the same with the second truck, as we continue to move forward with our program. There’s a lot of good things going on, but with the signing of Austin it set things in motion to make 2018 one of our best years yet.”
Hill started his racing career at the age of six in Quarter Midgets. He won the 2002 Quarter Midget championship at his home track in Cumming, Ga. and went on to excel in Bandolero, Legends Semi-Pro Series and Pro Late Model Series racing.
Before leaping to a partial Truck Series schedule last year with Young’s Motorsports, Hill, a two-year NASCAR Next alumnus built a solid platform in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East running full-time in 2014 and 2015 respectively.
Between the two seasons, Hill tallied one pole, four wins, 12 top-five and 21 top-10 finishes en route to a career-best third in the championship standings in 2015. Overall, he has five wins, 13 top-five and 24 top-10 finishes in 38 starts.
Making his Truck Series debut in 2014 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway driving for Ricky Benton Racing, Hill has made 26 additional starts since with a career-best 10th place finish earned twice at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway (October 2016) and Kentucky Speedway (July 2017) respectively.
Knowing he’ll have the opportunity to compete for his first series’ championship in three years, he’s confident about 2018.
“Chad (Kenrick) is a very accomplished crew chief and I think we can do great things together,” added Hill. “The ability as a driver to run every race next season, will help my consistency and allow me to provide better feedback to Chad and my team.
“When we ran in the K&N East Series with my families team, we saw the same progression in our results from running part-time to competition full-time in 2014 and 2015, and I expect the same results next season in the Truck Series.”
This weekend at Phoenix (Ariz.) Raceway, the Georgian will make his first Truck Series start at the 1.0-mile oval. However, he has one lone NASCAR K&N Pro Series West start in the Copper State in 2014, qualifying fifth before finishing 15th.
For the second consecutive race, Hill will have support from United Rentals for his No. 02 Ford for Friday night’s Lucas Oil 150, the penultimate Truck Series race of the season.
Fans can follow Hill on social media for updates at Austin Hill Racing (Facebook), @_AustinHill (Twitter), and _Austin_Hill_ (Instagram).
For more on Tyler Young and Young’s Motorsports, please visit YoungsMotorsports.com or click on his Facebook page. Young is also active on Twitter. You can follow and tweet with him @TylerYoung02.
The Lucas Oil 150 (150 laps / 150 miles) is the 22nd of 23 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races on the 2017 schedule. Qualifying is set for later in the day, Nov. 10 beginning at 3:30 p.m. The 32-truck field will take the green flag shortly after 6:30 p.m. with live coverage on FOX Sports 1 (FS1), the Motor Racing Network (Radio) and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Satellite Radio, Channel 90). All times are Mountain (MT).
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