Austin Hill under scrutiny after crash in NASCAR race at Indy
SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Austin Hill faces scrutiny and possibly more penalties after a severe crash and a penalty in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Exiting turn three, Aric Almirola packed air on Hill’s spoiler and moved him up the track. Hill slid, appeared to have his car saved and then made contact with Almirola’s right-rear quarter panel. The contact sent Almirola nearly head-on into a non-SAFER barrier wall and Hill sliding and crashing with him.
“I couldn’t save it, I was not trying to right-rear him,” Hill quickly said over the radio.
Almirola and his team had a different view of the crash.
“If NASCAR sticks to precedence, the 21 shouldn’t be racing next week,” Almirola’s team said.
NASCAR also had a different view than Hill. Officials penalized Hill five laps for the crash.
“They can go f-ck themselves, NASCAR. That is bulls-it,” Hill responded over the team radio before recounting his perspective on the crash.
NASCAR confirmed to TRE they will discuss further actions for Hill on Tuesday.
Hill could face penalties beyond the 5-lap penalty, ranging from a 50-championship-point penalty to a suspension that could wipe away his playoff points, per their precedent from similar wrecks like these.
In the past, drivers have been suspended for right-rear hooking drivers into the wall in similar high-speed sections of race track — including Bubba Wallace and Chase Elliott who were suspended for frontstretch incidents at Las Vegas in 2022 and Charlotte in 2023, respectively.
This year, NASCAR specified a suspension could wipe away all of a driver’s playoff points.
On the frontstretch at Circuit of the Americas, a slower section of racetrack than the other incidents, Austin Cindric right-rear hooked Ty Dillon and caused an incident in March. NASCAR docked 50 points from Cindric.
What NASCAR will do with Hill remains to be seen until after discussions take place Tuesday.
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Jonathan Fjeld View All
Jonathan Fjeld is the co-owner of the The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2010.
A Twin Valley, MN, native, Fjeld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. Since then, he has stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became the co-owner and managing editor in 2023 and has guided the site to massive growth in that time.
Fjeld has covered a wide array of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick's final Cup Series season, the first NASCAR national series disqualification in over 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen's stunning win in Chicago and the first Cup Series race at Road America in 66 years – as well as up-and-coming drivers' stories and stories from inside the sport, like the tech it takes for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-tier team.
Currently, he resides in Albuquerque, N.M., where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and does on-air reports. He loves spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at fjeldjonathan@gmail.com