Austin Hill on Kevin Harvick call when replacing – Sports News
Richard Childress Racing driver Austin Hill detailed his cellphone call with Kevin Harvick after he was tasked with replacing Kyle Busch following the NASCAR icon’s tragic death.
One of the primary issues Hill did after studying he can be the full-time substitute for Busch was call Kevin Harvick, maybe the one one that had been in such a tough state of affairs earlier than.
In 2001, Harvick took over Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s seat with RCR in a comparable circumstance. Earnhardt Sr. infamously was killed after struggling a fractured cranium from a horrific crash on the ultimate lap of the Daytona 500.
Like Hill, Harvick was thrust into the vacant seat of a multi-time NASCAR champion and one of the best drivers in historical past.
“We had a very good conversation,” Hill mentioned of Harvick. “I figured he’s one of the only people in our sport who’s gone through something similar, so I wanted his input and wanted to hear how he approached it.”
“The number one thing that I kept going back to was that I didn’t want it to be about me at all. I didn’t want anyone to even know I was driving the race car.”
“When the decision was made to take the No. 8 off and put the 33 on it, I was all for it. I said, ‘Look, I don’t want anything that’s going to potentially make it look bad for Kyle or his family.’”
Rather than take Busch’s famed No. 8, Hill renumbered the car to No. 33, which he had pushed below within the Cup Series 12 occasions since his debut in 2022. 25 years in the past, Harvick did the identical, rebranding Dale Sr.’s iconic No. 3 car to his own No. 29.
The No. 8 car was later introduced to be reserved for Busch’s 11-year-old son, Brexton, when he is able to take it.
“Then they brought up putting my name on the car. I said, ‘I don’t think we should put my name on the car.’ I said if you don’t want Kyle’s name on it, we should do it blank. I even kind of pushed for not having my name on it for the rest of the season,” Hill mentioned of his talks with RCR following the tragedy.
“This is still his race car that he should be racing this weekend, next weekend and the weekend after that. I never wanted it to be about me.”
Hill’s first race as a full-time RCR driver got here at Charlotte Motor Speedway, simply three days after Busch’s death. His best end in seven races got here at Pocono Raceway in mid-June, when he completed 18th.
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