NASCAR suspended Xfinity Series driver Austin Hill for a run for fighting back Saturday against Aric Almirola crashing his car into the right rear, sending Almirola hard into the wall at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Hill will serve his suspension this weekend at Iowa Speedway. Austin Dillon will replace him in Richard Childress Racing’s No. 21 Xfinity Series car.
Austin Hill watches qualifying for the NASCAR Xfinity Series Pennzoil 250 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway
“Richard Childress Racing will not appeal the penalty imposed by NASCAR on the No. 21 team following the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway,” the team said in a social media post.
“We remain focused on winning a championship with Austin Hill in 2025.”
The sanction is more than a suspension. A suspended driver loses all playoff points earned during the regular season. Elimination points help a driver advance through the three-race elimination rounds if they do not win.
Hill is fifth in the Xfinity Series standings and third in playoff points with 21 (not counting the points he would earn by finishing in the top 10 in the regular season standings).
The suspension was not a surprise, as NASCAR often suspends drivers for this type of retaliation at high-speed tracks.
Earlier this season, NASCAR did not suspend Austin Cindric but instead took away 50 points and fined him $50,000 or a retaliatory bracket. Ty Dillon in the Cup race at the Circuit of the Americas. This incident has remained a subject of debate.
Hill told his team over the radio that the accident was unintentional. Almirola, speaking on The CW’s broadcast of the race after the accident, said it was obvious that was the case. NASCAR detained Hill five laps after the incident for reckless driving.
“It was definitely intentional,” Almirola said.
Almirola said he made contact with Hill to force him to move so Almirola could make the pass.
“I released him and he just turned left and hooked me at right back,” Almirola said.
“(It was) honestly one of the biggest wins of my entire NASCAR career. It reminds me a lot of the blow I took when I broke my back (in 2017 at Kansas).”
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He spent decades covering motorsports, including more than 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
