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Hattori Racing Enterprises, Austin Hill to compete in Xfinity race at Daytona

Austin Hill car

Gander Outdoors Truck Series driver Austin Hill make his Xfinity Series debut next week at Daytona International Speedway, Hattori Racing Enterprises announced Wednesday.

Hill, who won the season-opening Truck Series race at Daytona, will drive the No. 61 Toyota Supra for Hattor Racing Enterprises, which makes its first Xfinity Series start since 2015.

Scott Zipadelli, who serves as Hill’s crew chief in the Truck Series, will serve the same role in the July 5 race.

Hill will be sponsored by AISIN Group, Aisin AW, and ADVICS, as well as United Rentals.

“You always want to move up the ladder, and I can’t wait to get in the car,” Hill said in a press release. “I honestly never thought I’d have this opportunity. All thanks goes to (owner) Shige (Hattori) and AISIN Group. They’ve been working on this for a while and it’s a big deal for all of us to put a program together to race the Supra. We have a great team here, and it’s going to make the transition a lot smoother working with Scott and the entire truck series team. We set the bar pretty high for ourselves at Daytona, so hopefully we can have the same success as we did in February.”

Hill’s win in Daytona was his first career Truck Series victory. Through 11 starts this season he is seventh in the standings with two top fives and six top 10s. He has 62 Truck Series starts since 2014.

The team stated in the release it is trying to put together more Xfinity races this season.

“We’re very excited to return to the Xfinity Series,” Hattori said in a press release. “The Toyota Supra is extremely important to our partners and very popular in Japan and we want to be part of the Supra program in NASCAR. It’s exciting for our team to compete in the Xfinity Series at Daytona, especially after winning there earlier this year. Austin has done a good job in the truck so far and this will be good to get him more experience.”