Austin Hill's championship hopes take big hit after suspension

NASCAR Xfinity Series driver Austin Hill. Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Austin Hill's NASCAR championship hopes take a big hit after suspension

By Samuel Stubbs | Last updated Jul 29, 2025 6:27 PM ET

Austin Hill's path to the 2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series championship just got a whole lot tougher.

On Tuesday, it was announced that Hill was suspended for the Aug. 2 race after he intentionally right-rear hooked Aric Almirola in the closing laps of Saturday's Pennzoil 250 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

But the one-race suspension carries a much harsher punishment than Hill just losing ground in the regular-season standings.

Thanks to a new rule implemented by NASCAR over the offseason, Hill will lose all playoff points — both those he's already earned and any he earns over his final four starts of the regular season.

That's a crushing blow for Hill, who has won three races in 2025 and earned 21 playoff points through the first 21 races of the season.

Now, Hill will begin the first round of the playoffs at 2,000 points, making just getting out of the Round of 12 a much bigger challenge than it would be otherwise.

Hill will lose all his regular-season playoff points because that is a condition of the waiver for missing a race for a non-medical reason. So he will lose all 21 of his playoff points as well as any he earns between now and the end of the regular season. https://t.co/OahjXGtNwm
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) July 29, 2025

Hill can earn playoff points once the playoffs begin, but unless he wins multiple races and stages in the Round of 12, he'd likely begin the Round of 8 at a significant points deficit as well, should he advance.

Playoff points don't matter in the winner-take-all championship race, but Hill's potential path to Phoenix will have zero margin for error.

The schedule for the Round of 12 is a daunting one, featuring visits to Bristol, Kansas and the Charlotte Roval. Hill has never won at any of those tracks.

The Round of 8 does feature a superspeedway in Talladega and Martinsville, where Hill won on March 29, but if he's unable to win a race and lock up a spot in the Championship 4, a points battle for a spot in the championship race will be fought completely uphill.

The penalty also makes the final four races of the regular season — Watkins Glen, Daytona, Portland and St. Louis — essentially glorified test sessions for the No. 21 team, as Hill can't earn any additional playoff points.

All in all, Hill's suspension hurts in both the short and the long term, but the championship implications make his decision to wreck Almirola on Saturday all the more baffling in hindsight.

Samuel Stubbs

Hailing from the same neck of the woods as NASCAR Hall of Famer Mark Martin, Samuel has been covering NASCAR for Yardbarker since February 2024. He has been a member of the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) since October of 2024. When he’s not writing about racing, Samuel covers Arkansas Razorback basketball for Yardbarker

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