Austin Hill is taking heat from two NASCAR insiders for hitting Aric Almirola at the Xfinity Series race at Indianapolis Speedway. On The Teardown podcast, Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic reacted to Hill making the dangerous move.
“Come on, Austin Hill,” Gluck said. “What was he doing? How was that not intentional? He had white gloves. He lost his crap and wrecked him. Is there any debate? Maybe he’s convinced himself otherwise because he sounded pretty adamant about it.”
Gluck then predicted how long NASCAR would suspend Austin Hill, “To me, the only question is one race or two, not zero or one, because that was a particularly egregious right-rear hook,” Gluck explained. “NASCAR has obviously cracked down on right-rear hooks. …It was a high-speed track, but the fact that he hit a non-safer covered wall, too.”
What Austin Hill at Indy was ‘too dangerous’
Bianchi shared his thoughts on the incident and also predicted how many races Hill will miss. “On a high-speed rack it’s a no-no,” he said. “I don’t want to say it’s an automatic suspension, but it almost should be. It’s one race for me. Sit him down. …You don’t do that at Indy. You don’t do that here. It’s too fast, it’s too dangerous, and I have no issue with him being suspended. He should be suspended. It’s going to suck for him because he had a very good season, he’s a championship contender. Everything that goes along with it is out the window.”
Hill hit Almirola during the closing laps of the Xfinity race. Neither driver was injured, but NASCAR penalized Hill by parking him for five laps.
Hill declined to comment after the race, but after the incident, he told his Richard Childress Racing (RCR) team he was not trying to “right-rear” Aric Almirola. “(NASCAR) can go f**k themselves,” Hill said after learning about his penalty. F**k NASCAR. That is f***ing bull****.”
Austin Hill has been driving full-time in the Xfinity Series for RCR since 2022. This year, Hill has won three races and finished in the top 10 12 times.