Austin Dillon holds on to win NASCAR Xfinity race at Charlotte

Austin Dillon passed Denny Hamlin with 15 laps left and won the Xfinity Series race Saturday at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

The 25-year-old Dillon started on the pole and had the fastest car all day, leading the first 98 laps and 163 of 200 overall for his first win on his home track.

Hamlin finished second, nearly 3 seconds behind Dillon.

Kasey Kahne was third, followed by Regan Smith and Xfinity Series regular Darrell Wallace Jr.

“I didn’t want to get out of this car (because) it drove so good,” Dillon said.

Points leader Chris Buescher was 11th, but was never in contention for the lead.

It was Dillon’s fourth career series victory. He has seven top-five finishes in nine Xfinity starts this season.

Dillon simply couldn’t be caught when his No. 33 Chevrolet had clean air.

He would regularly stretch his lead to more than four seconds during long stretches of green flag racing in the first half of the race.

“I thought it was pretty much a battle for second place all day,” Hamlin said. “He had an exceptionally strong car.”

Even Clint Bowyer, who was working as a Fox Sports analyst, seemed a little bored with Dillon extending his lead late in the race, remarking, “I don’t know about you guys, but I would like to see a caution right now.”

Dillon also won earlier in the year at Las Vegas after leading 183 of 200 laps.

Kyle Larson, last year’s winner, had to take his car behind the wall midway through the race after his No. 4 Chevrolet sustained a broken rear shock mount. He finished 33rd.