NASCAR Senior Vice President of Competition Elton Sawyer says when Austin Hill wrecked Aric Almirola at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the Xfinity Series race on July 25, the incident immediately jumped out as retaliation.
“That’s why we reacted at the track the way we did in holding Austin for five laps (for reckless driving),” Sawyer said Wednesday on The Morning Drive on SiriusXM.
“Once we got back to the R and D Center, started gathering more information, talked to Austin, talked to Aric … continued to look at available resources through camera angles and data … we felt it was very similar to what we had dealt with a year or so ago at Las Vegas with Bubba Wallace and Kyle Larson as well as what we dealt with at Charlotte with Chase Elliott and Denny Hamlin.”
Elliott right-hooked Hamlin into the outside wall at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 2023. Wallace did the same to Larson at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 2022.
Under NASCAR’s rule revision this year, team owner Richard Childress must apply for a waiver for Hill to be admitted to the playoffs since he is missing the Iowa Xfinity Series race. Austin Dillon is driving Hill’s Xfinity car at Iowa.
Due to Hill missing the Iowa race:
The 21-playoff points he had accumulated via his three Xfinity victories this year are erased.
He also is now prevented from acquiring playoff points during the regular season.
Hill will be seeded last in the 12-driver Xfinity Series playoff field since NASCAR is expected to grant the waiver.
He is allowed to acquire playoff points once the postseason begins.
Hill’s five-lap penalty during Saturday’s race relegated him to a 34th-place finish. While being held on pit road, Hill unleashed a foul-mouthed tirade against NASCAR over his two-way radio.
“We totally understand the emotion around our sport,” says Sawyer, a former NASCAR driver. “In a conversation we had yesterday (Tuesday) with him (we told him) he’s a role model for our sport, a future champion, and he’s got to take all of that into consideration and control those situations in a different way going forward.”
After Almirola walked from IMS’ infield care center Saturday, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver said the incident with Hill was “definitely intentional.” He described it as “one of the biggest hits in his NASCAR career” and compared it to the one he took at Kansas in 2017 when he broke his back.
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