Kevin Harvick rips Austin Hill and NASCAR, reacts to Richard Childress fiery response

One of the more controversial moments from the weekend that was at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for NASCAR happened during Saturday’s Xfinity Series race. Austin Hill is taking heat for right-rear hooking Aric Almirola.

While neither driver was injured, NASCAR penalized Hill by parking him for five laps, due to the egregious nature of the decision. He declined to comment after the race, but after the incident, he told his team he was not trying to hook Almirola in colorful language: “(NASCAR) can go f**k themselves,” Hill said. “F**k NASCAR. That is f***ing bull****.”

Richard Childress defended his driver as well, sparking some intense debate: “They didn’t do a damn thing to the No. 2 car [of Austin Cindric] when they, he wrecked Ty [Dillon] and admitted to it,” Childress said, via Dustin Long of NBC Sports. “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.”

On the latest episode of Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour, Kevin Harvick made his opinion known on the matter pertaining towards his former team owner in the Cup Series. He’s not on Hill’s side, but he also took some shots at NASCAR, as well.

“When I look back at all this right-rear hooking, we’ve seen what happened to Bubba Wallace when he hooked. Chase Elliott, when he hooked in the right-rear. NASCAR 100% dropped the ball on Austin Cindric at COTA. Where they’re going wrong, and I’ve said this on here before, when Austin Cindric hooked Ty Dillon at COTA, and they did the exact same thing wrong at Indy, you should just park them. Put them in the garage, park them, days over. That’s the penalty,” Harvick stated.

“I think that not calling that call at COTA gives Richard Childress’ argument of who you are a little bit of merit, because they didn’t officiate it correctly at that particular time. Now, we do a five-lap penalty. When you do that right-rear hook, you park them. That’s what you got to do. When you know it’s blatant, just park them. I think that, in this situation, you know, they did five laps. I’m sure that he’ll probably get a week off.

“Where they’re drawing criticism is when they don’t do it correctly, like they didn’t at COTA this year. But that needs to be what happens with this Austin Hill situation, because it’s just you can’t have it. You heard Almirola talk about it afterwards. He’s like, ‘That’s as hard as I’ve ever hit. It felt just like I did when I broke my back.’ That’s the thing that you don’t want.

“So, I understand Richard Childress’ frustration about COTA. I agree with him on NASCAR dropping a call at COTA. You should just park them for the race, and then you take care of the rest of it during the week, next week. But being inconsistent is where all the criticism will come from.”

Alas, Kevin Harvick makes some salient points, and it’s tough to disagree with his sentiment. One thing is for sure, Austin Hill will likely receive some further punishment for his move over the weekend, and fans won’t be too sad about that. But NASCAR needs to be more consistent in their policing, as well.