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NASCAR reviewing Austin Hill, Aric Almirola incident further, more punishment coming

ProfilePhotoby: Nick Geddes07/27/25NickGeddesNews
Austin Hill
Andrew Nelles / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

NASCAR issued a five-lap penalty to Austin Hill after he appeared to intentionally right rear hook Aric Almirola in retaliation with 10 laps to go in Saturday’s race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Hill might have further punishment coming his way.

According to Jacob Seelman of Race Face Digital, NASCAR will conduct an additional review on the incident. Drivers have been suspended in the past for similar incidents. NASCAR will announce a decision in the middle of this upcoming week.

If NASCAR suspends Hill, it would be detrimental to his playoff positioning in the Xfinity Series. Per NASCAR’s updated guidelines for playoff waivers, missing a race due to a suspension would result in a loss of all playoff bonus points. Hill currently has 21 playoff points, third most among drivers.

Hill finished 34th after serving the penalty. He was furious with NASCAR afterwards.

“Oh, they can go f*ck themselves. F*ck NASCAR,” Hill said on his radio. “That is f*cking bullshit… I’m f*cking sideways, I go to correct it back to the left. It’s locked to the left, and I run into the #19 [Almirola].”

Richard Childress comes to the defense of Austin Hill

Hill declined to speak with reporters after the race. Richard Childress, however, had some thoughts. He doesn’t believe his driver should be suspended.

“Hell no. They didn’t do a damn thing to the 2 car [of Austin Cindric] when they, he wrecked Ty [Dillon] and admitted to it,” Childress said. “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.”

Almirola hit the wall head-on where there wasn’t a SAFER Barrier. In his mind, it was absolutely intentional.

“Oh, it was definitely intentional,” Almirola said. “He blocked me three times, and I finally got him loose into [Turn] 3. He had damage on the nose, so he was really slow in the corners. It was time to go. We’re coming down to ten laps to go and the leaders are starting to put a gap on us. It’s time to go, I got him loose, and he just turned left and hooked me in the right rear.

“Honestly one of the biggest hits in my entire NASCAR career. Very reminiscent of the hit I took when I broke my back.”