Talladega qualifying effort a big boost for Hill, RCR

Austin Hill got his first taste of contending for a NASCAR Cup Series pole Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway, only to have it snatched away at the last minute.

“It was a lot like the O’Reilly side when we’ve qualified here and have had shots at getting the pole or being second, and it’s always a little nerve-racking,” Hill told RACER and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “But in the back of your mind, you feel like somebody is going to beat you. I’ve always felt that, even the times we’ve sat on the pole. So, you kind of go ahead and tell yourself, ‘All right, you’re going to be second. You’re going to be third,’ or somewhere around there.

“But great effort by everyone on our United Rentals Chevrolet, everybody at RCR, ECR, for giving me a great engine, a lot of power, for this weekend.”

Hill sat on the provisional pole for much of the final round of qualifying with his No. 33 team. The final driver to take time, Chase Briscoe, won the pole. The two will share the front row for Sunday’s race, and it was still a career-best effort for Hill in the series.

In 40 starts, Hill has qualified in the top five twice now (Daytona in August and Talladega).

“I would have loved to have been on the pole for those bragging rights going into the race tomorrow, but having that clean air is going to be crucial,” Hill said. “Hopefully we can keep it all day. Obviously, these Cup races are very long, and there are a lot of things that can happen, but it helps knowing you have a fast race car, and that’s what we have on this (No). 33 team to go race tomorrow. So, I’m looking forward to it.

“Congrats to the (No.) 19. Oh, so close. Maybe next time.”

It’s been a season of ups and downs for Hill and his team, who had to regroup after Kyle Busch's passing. Hill has only two top-20 finishes, and as he’s balanced double-duty weekends and two different race cars, he's experienced a bit of everything. Among those was the disappointment of lost potential in San Diego, where Hill had a fast race car that was competing in the top five before they ran into the back of the leaders and caused a crash.

On the flip side, Saturday’s qualifying effort marked the sixth time in their 21 starts together that they've qualified in the top 15.

“I think it gives everyone a lot of confidence,” Hill said. “I know it’s a superspeedway and when you’re out here, you’re just wide open as a driver and you’re having to do your job with the shift points and all of those things, but I think it gives the entire team a lot of confidence going into the race tomorrow to know you have a car that has a lot of pace and something to work with.

“I think you’ll see that when we line up to race tomorrow.”

Sunday will be only the third time Hill has run a Cup Series race at Talladega.

“Everything is different with how the draft works on the Cup side versus the O’Reilly side,” Hill said. “I talk about it a lot – we have what we call a bubble effect on the O’Reilly side with the back of the car, and it’s kind of hard to break through that bubble and create runs. So, I feel like you can kind of keep the lead - I wouldn’t say easier - but there is a little bit of an easier-ness to it on keeping the lead on the O’Reilly side. These cars on the Cup side, they don’t have that bubble effort.

“That is something that NASCAR has been working on, and that’s something that we did going into this weekend with the new package change with the rear spoiler height. Obviously, none of us know what it’s going to be like tomorrow, but I’m hoping it allows us to create those runs as we do on the O’Reilly side, and it gives me a little bit of that feel that the O’Reilly car. Because if it does, I have very strong feelings on how tomorrow can go as long as we stay out of all of the big wrecks and crashes that are going to happen.”