Austin Hill reveals what he would ‘take back’ from Aric Almirola incident at Indianapolis

This is the first race for Austin Hill since serving his one-race NASCAR suspension. Does he have any regrets from Indianapolis yet? Well, it doesn’t really appear that way. At least, not when it comes to what he did on the track to Aric Almirola.

Austin Hill was suspended after he right-rear hooked Aric Almirola at Indy. He had to sit out at Iowa and has forfeited all of his playoff points for the entire season. It makes his hopes for a championship much more difficult.

Before the Watkins Glen Xfinity Series race, Hill spoke about the incident once again. He also compared it to his moment at Charlotte last season with Cole Custer.

“I’ll probably get backlash for it, but absolutely not. I’m gonna still race the that I always do. I’m a hard-nosed racer,” Hill explained. “Anyone that saw the piece that went out last night, you know, they can go on the NASCAR app and read it. But basically, it was fully unintentional. It’s easy me saying that right now, right? With it being two weeks out. But I’m an extremely honest person.

“You know, just to put it in perspective with the whole Cole Custer thing at Charlotte, you know, the main reason I got that penalty is I told Wayne Auton exactly what happened. Told him that I would take any penalty that came on my way and hold it on my shoulders because I knew that I was in the wrong in that instance. But this instance was just a total different deal.”

While he spoke, Austin Hill revealed that he had a regret. He wishes he could do one thing differently.

“I hate it for all of our guys. Everyone on the 21 team, for having to go through this, losing the 21 bonus points,” Hill continued. “Our entire, you know, sponsors, partners, everyone involved. Really, the only thing I wish I could take back but you can’t take back is uh, the things I said on the radio. Other than that, yeah, the things that happen on the race track was fully unintentional, it was a racing incident. But the good thing about today is we have a really fast Bennett Chevrolet as fast as Xfinity Mobile, and we’re going to go out there and show everybody how it’s done.”

Austin Hill made a mistake at best. When he hit Aric Almirola, it was a nasty, violent wreck. Hill earned his suspension. While he continues to deny it was intentional, if officials had any feeling it could have been purposeful, they have to make that call.