Austin Hill wins the truck series in the first day at Daytona



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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Austin Hill has stalled to win his first career NASCAR Truck Series win in a game started Friday night at Daytona International Speedway.

With only nine of the 32 trucks running in the second overtime, Hill had to block Grant Enfinger for most of the last lap. He needed one last big daring maneuver to hold back Enfinger as they rushed to the checkered flag.

"When we went to work overtime, man, I was so scared, so many things were going through my head," said Hill. "Throughout the last lap, my heart was beating wildly, I thought they were going to go outside and make it a drag race." I'd never have thought that in a million of years I would win at Daytona. "

Austin Hill celebrates its victory after its first win in the NASCAR Truck Series on Friday night at the opening of the season at Daytona International Speedway. Jonathan Ferrey / Getty Images

Hill won for Hattori Racing and solidified the team's decision to release the reigning champion of the series Brett Moffitt a month after Moffitt won the title. Funding was tough for last season, but Moffitt won the last two races of the year to give the underdog an unexpected title.

Team owner Shige Hattori released Moffitt and signed Hill, who was financially supported, in early January. The 24-year-old won for the first time in 52 career career games and Hattori has won three straight victories since last season.

Enfinger finished second and called the race "carnage everywhere".

Ross Chastain was third, followed by Spencer Boyd and Matt Crafton. Angela Ruch, the niece of Derrike Cope, winner of the Daytona 500 in 1990, finished eighth. She and Natalie Decker both participated in the opening of the Truck Series and are the only two NASCAR National Women at the opening weekend.

The arrival of Ruch is the second highest for a female driver of the Truck series, behind Jennifer Jo Cobb, sixth at Daytona in 2011.

Decker's national debut came to an end two laps of the race when a flat tire on the front left caused the fire on his truck. She drove it up to the pit lane as the flames gushed under her hood and the crew members helped pull Decker off the truck. A member of the crew used a little too much force to push Decker off and she stumbled against the pit wall.

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Decker is trying to play five different series this season and Daytona was the first of 12 scheduled truck series races.

Pilot Bryan Dauzat struck a crew member on the pit road during this very quick warning. Dauzat had lost his brakes and had warned his team on the radio that he could not stop. Jackman Billy Rock was hit as he was crossing in front of the truck.

The impact sent the team member to the ground, but he was awake and alert while he was being transferred by ambulance to a nearby hospital. The team said Rock had a broken shoulder and team owner Jim Rosenblum told Fox Sports that Rock had been released from the hospital.

The first game of the series had three wide races that had at least five ranks, but he contributed to the eleven race record warnings that eliminated all the top candidates.

Marcus Lemonis, CEO of Gander Outdoors, main sponsor of the Truck series, offered financial incentives to competitors attending the Prerace Riders meeting. Lemonis, head of "The Profit" on CNBC, has pledged an additional $ 10,000 and a caravan to the Daytona winner. He also promised a bonus of $ 100,000 to the championship winning team as well as other incentives for the upcoming season.

"How come we're not excited tonight, are we excited?" Lemonis told the competitors.

The information provided by The Associated Press has been used in this report.

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