NASCAR suspended Austin Hill one race for intentionally wrecking Aric Almirola in last weekend’s Xfinity Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Hill will not compete in Saturday’s race at Iowa Speedway. Richard Childress Racing stated it would not appeal Hill’s penalty. Austin Dillon will drive Hill’s car at Iowa.
A playoff waiver will have to be requested for Hill to maintain his playoff eligibility, but he will lose all the playoff points he’s earned and any playoff points he scores in the final five races of the regular season.
With the waiver, Hill will be last in points with 2,000 entering the first round of the playoffs.
Hill had scored 21 playoff points — behind only Connor Zilisch (29 playoff points) and Justin Allgaier (21) — this season. Hill has three wins and six stage wins.
The incident between Hill and Almirola unfolded late in the Xfinity race last weekend.
Almirola got to the rear of Hill’s car and got him loose as they raced for fourth with 10 laps left in last weekend’s race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The back end of Hill’s car slid out but he corrected the slide and straightened the car as Almirola moved underneath him. Hill’s car then had contact with the right rear of Almirola’s car, sending into the SAFER barrier nose-first.
“That was violent,” Almirola said of the crash. “To be totally honest, that was one of the hardest hits I’ve taken in my NASCAR career. The impact felt very similar to when I broke my back (in 2017 at Kansas Speedway). I’d be very interested to see the black box data from (Saturday’s) crash, but it was vicious and that’s just uncalled for.
“I got him a little bit loose to get under him because it was time to go. I would have never done that five laps into the race, but when you’re coming down to the end of the race at Indianapolis and he’s already blocked me three times, I certainly got him loose.
“I didn’t feel what he did was necessary. I felt like he could have easily fell back in line. He was damaged anyway. We were losing time to the leaders. It wasn’t like we were on pace with them. He was holding me up clearly.
“It’s just unfortunate. He obviously lost his mind right there. That was really bad judgment in my opinion.”
NASCAR penalized Hill five laps his contact with Almirola.
Hill said on the team’s radio after the incident: “I couldn’t hang on to it. I was not trying to right rear him. He had me out of control. I was like jerk back to the left to keep it off the wall. I’m not sure what the hell he thought just running me over in (Turn) 3, though.”
After being told on the radio he was being held five laps for reckless driving, Hill directed multiple expletives to NASCAR.
Asked if Hill should be suspended, car owner Richard Childress said: “Hell, no. They didn’t do a damn thing to the No. 2 car (Austin Cindric). He wrecked Ty (Dillon) and admitted to it, drove him in the right rear and wrecked him at COTA. It’s who you are. We’re a blue-collar team. They give us trouble all the time.”
NASCAR did not penalize Cindric during the race for wrecking Dillon at COTA, but series officials docked Cindric 50 points and fined him $50,000 a few days later after reviewing the incident.
