NASCAR insider reacts to Austin Hill suspension

Austin Hill and his 2025 Xfinity Series championship hopes took a big hit Tuesday. NASCAR suspended Hill for Saturday’s HyVee Perks at Iowa Speedway for intentionally right rear hooking Aric Almirola in retaliation with 10 laps remaining in this past Saturday’s race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Per NASCAR’s updated guidelines for playoff waivers, missing a race due to a suspension results in a loss of all playoff bonus points. Hill will vacate his 21 playoff points up to this point — third most among drivers — and any he earns throughout the remainder of the regular season will not carry along with him to the postseason. It’s a big penalty, though a “justified” one, Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic said in a Dirty Mo Media video.

“It’s gonna be tough for Austin Hill in the playoffs, a championship favorite. He’s got three wins this year [and] he’s currently ranked fifth in points,” Bianchi said. “Now, he’ll get a waiver to make the playoffs and that’s fine, but his road to the Championship 4 is much harder now than it would have been before Saturday’s incident.

“… This was a justified penalty. NASCAR got this one right. The caveat, of course, is the playoff points. NASCAR added that rule this year, and so that’s really going to hit Austin Hill in the playoffs. You work all year during the regular season to get to bonus points that help you through each round. As we’ve seen many times, those can be the big difference between advancing and being eliminated. Austin Hill is not going to have those to fall back on. This has championship implications but again, when you look at what happened, this was a deserved penalty for Austin Hill.”

Richard Childress Racing decides against appealing Austin Hill suspension

Richard Childress Racing is not appealing the suspension. They announced that Austin Dillon will pilot the No. 21 Chevrolet at Iowa.

Hill, who finished 34th after serving a five-lap penalty, declined to speak with reporters after the race. Richard Childress, however, delivered a fiery response to NASCAR. He didn’t believe his driver should have been 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 felt it was clearly intentional. He described the hit as one of the hardest he’s taken in his NASCAR career. Almirola hit the wall in Turn 3 head-on where there was no SAFER Barrier.

“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.”