With nine laps to go in Saturday's Xfinity Series race, the Pennzoil 250, at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Aric Almirola and Austin Hill were racing for fourth position. During the battle, Almirola got Hill loose before Hill turned into Almirola's right rear, spinning the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota into the wall in turn three, ahead of the SAFER barrier.
Almirola was cleared following the incident but called it one of the hardest hits of his career. The driver is also confident that Hill intentionally turned him.
"Oh, it was definitely intentional," Almiorla told The CW outside of the infield care center. "He blocked me three times. I finally got him loose in three. He had damage on the nose, so he was really slow in the corners. It was time to go; we were coming to nine laps to go, and the leaders were starting to put a gap on us. It was 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."
Almirola added that it was especially hard for Hill to be the driver delivering what he views as an intentional hit, following Hill's earlier statement this year that he hopes to be a role model for racing etiquette among the young drivers in the series.
"He stood up in front of a meeting in Martinsville and said that he was going to be a role model for all the young kids to look up to, and racing etiquette," Almiorla told The CW Sports. "I think that’s kinda laughable after that one."
Hill went on the radio directly after the incident to proclaim that he did not hit Almirola on purpose and just couldn't hang on to his car after becoming so loose.
"I couldn't hang onto it," Hill said on his No. 21 radio. "I was not trying to right rear him."
Before the race returned green from the red flag brought out for the incident, NASCAR decided to hand Hill a five-lap penalty for his reckless driving. When the No. 21 Richard Childress Racing team told Hill of the penalty, he was not happy, launching into a tirade on the radio.
"They can go f*** themselves," Hill said on the Radio. "F*** NASCAR. That’s f***ing bullshit. I’m sideways, I go to correct it back to the left, it gets locked to the left, and I f***ing run into the No. 19."
NASCAR has said that they will review the incident further, meaning Hill may be hit with more than just his five-lap penalty. The above radio call will do little to curry favor.
The Athletic's Jordan Bianchi asked Richard Childress if he thought Hill deserved a suspension, in which the RCR owner referenced the decision following Ty Dillon and Austin Cindric's crash at the Circuit of the Americas during the Cup race this Spring.
Hell no," Childress said. "They didn't do a damn thing to [Cindric] when he wrecked Ty and admitted to it, 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."
While Cindric wasn't suspended following his intentional wreck against Ty Dillon at COTA, he was handed a 50-point penalty. If Hill were to be suspended, he would lose all his playoff points earned so far in 2025 and would be unable to gain any more in the upcoming five regular season races, starting the playoffs at a flat 2000 points.
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