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Austin Hill’s Misjudgment at Phoenix Results in Hard Hit and ‘Dumbest Move’ in Racing Career

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Kyle Dalton | Last updated Mar 8, 2025 6:50 PM ET

Austin Hill has started off the 2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series season on a strong note, including a win at Atlanta and a fourth-place finish last weekend at Circuit of the Americas.

The Richard Childress Racing driver headed into Saturday’s race at Phoenix with plenty of confidence based on his previous six trips to the mile-long track, which had resulted in five top 10s, including his best finish, a fourth in last year’s spring race.

Unfortunately, any hopes of the No. 21 securing another top finish in the desert came to a crashing end early in the second stage. That’s when the 30-year-old was closely trailing the No. 8 car and misjudged Turn 3. His car violently slammed into the inside wall before careening into traffic and collecting a couple of cars in Sheldon Creed and Dean Thompson.

After his visit to the infield care center, the RCR pilot visited with The CW’s Carla Metts about the incident.

“Getting into Turn 3 there and I just misjudged the wall, the inside wall,” Hill admitted. “And that might be the dumbest move I've ever have happen to me in racing.

"So, I feel bad for everyone involved in the wreck. It looks like the 26 got in there, the 00. Feel bad for those guys because they were innocent bystanders. Obviously, that was 100 percent my fault.”

Shortly after a nasty hit at @phoenixraceway that took out multiple cars, @austinhill took the blame for a misjudgment and potentially "dumbest move" of his racing career. pic.twitter.com/UZhqctagPZ
— Kyle Dalton (@kdsportswriter) March 8, 2025

Hill and the rest of his Xfinity Series competitors return to action on March 15 in Las Vegas. The race will air on The CW with the green flag scheduled to wave at 3:30 p.m. ET.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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