Richard Childress reacts to Austin Hill penalty, provides fiery response to NASCAR

Tonight’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Indianapolis is likely going to lead to penalties for Richard Childress Racing driver Austin Hill. It appeared that Hill right rear hooked Aric Almirola and caused both drivers to wreck. Now, RC himself is commenting on the situation.

What isn’t going to help Austin Hill is how he reacted on his radio after being held for five laps by NASCAR. Hill went on to finish P34 by the time the race finished, one spot above Almirola.

Richard Childress was asked about the situation. He came off as defensive and stood up for his driver.

“I’ll be in bigger trouble than I already am with NASCAR, period,” Richard Childress said when initially asked about the incident. He then weighed in after being asked if Austin Hill 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, 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.”

Richard Childress is always going to stand up for his drivers. That’s just how it is. But Austin Cindric was penalized for his right rear hook on Ty Dillon at COTA. Some felt it wasn’t enough, but he was penalized 50 points and received a fine.

Richard Childress sticking up for Austin Hill

There are serious consequences at stake for Richard Childress and Austin Hill. If NASCAR finds that this right rear hook was intentional, they are going to throw the book at Hill, and they should.

He is a driver who not only has a past of questionable decisions, but one that stood up in front of the entire series and said he was going to be a good example of how to race. Today, he threw that all out the window when he wrecked Almirola.

If NASCAR suspends Hill for a week or two, that’s going to sink his chances of an Xfinity Series championship. It could also be the first time we see a driver in the three national series lose all playoff points for the season. That is the punishment for an unexcused absence from a race, and a suspension via penalty is not a valid excuse.

Richard Childress doesn’t think his driver should be suspended. I get that. But NASCAR is likely going to feel a lot different. Hill has to get his act together. This is not when you need to make these mistakes and poor decisions. All of his hard work could go out the window. Hill has won races, and he has playoff points. A suspension takes all of that away.