Austin Hill suspended by NASCAR for Indy incident

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — NASCAR suspended Austin Hill for an incident in the Xfinity Series race Saturday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Hill will sit out the Aug. 2 Xfinity race at Iowa Speedway. He will also lose all of the playoff points he has earned and will earn in the regular season.

Before the suspension, Hill earned 21 playoff points and was in position to earn six more. That would’ve seeded him third for the playoffs with 2027 points, just 12 points behind current No. 1 seed Connor Zilisch and 23 points above the cutline he’ll face in the opening Round of 12 of the playoffs. He also had a 14-point advantage for the cutline in the Round of 8 before the Championship 4.

Now, Hill is currently tied for the No. 12 seed with just 2000 points. He is 39 points behind Zilisch, five points below the Round of 12 cutline and 13 points below the Round of 8 cutline.

Richard Childress Racing will not appeal the suspension. They will have Austin Dillon in the No. 21 car at Iowa.

Exiting turn three at Indy, Aric Almirola packed air on Hill’s spoiler and moved him up the track. Hill slid, appeared to have his car saved and then made contact with Almirola’s right-rear quarter panel. The contact sent Almirola nearly head-on into a non-SAFER barrier wall and Hill sliding and crashing with him.

Officials penalized Hill five laps for the crash.

“They can go f-ck themselves, NASCAR. That is bulls-it,” Hill responded over the team radio before recounting his perspective on the crash.

MORE: Austin Hill under scrutiny after crash in NASCAR race at Indy

In the past, drivers have been suspended for right-rear hooking drivers into the wall in similar high-speed sections of race track — including Bubba Wallace and Chase Elliott who were suspended for frontstretch incidents at Las Vegas in 2022 and Charlotte in 2023, respectively.

Jonathan Fjeld is the co-owner of the The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2010.

A Twin Valley, MN, native, Fjeld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. Since then, he has stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became the co-owner and managing editor in 2023 and has guided the site to massive growth in that time.

Fjeld has covered a wide array of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick’s final Cup Series season, the first NASCAR national series disqualification in over 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen’s stunning win in Chicago and the first Cup Series race at Road America in 66 years – as well as up-and-coming drivers’ stories and stories from inside the sport, like the tech it takes for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-tier team.

Currently, he resides in Albuquerque, N.M., where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and does on-air reports. He loves spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at fjeldjonathan@gmail.com