Richard Childress says NASCAR should not suspend Austin Hill for incident with Aric Almirola

INDIANAPOLIS — Car owner Richard Childress was emphatic that NASCAR should not suspend Austin Hill after his contact wrecked Aric Almirola late in Saturday’s Xfinity race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, resulting in what Almirola described as a “vicious” hit that was “uncalled for.”

NASCAR penalized Hill five laps for reckless driving. NASCAR will review the situation this week.

“He obviously lost his mind right there,” Almirola said of Hill after exiting the infield care center. “That was really bad judgment in my opinion.”

A Richard Childress Racing spokesperson walking with Hill on pit road after the race said, “we’re not talking.”

Childress did talk.

After telling reporters “I ain’t going to say nothing (because) I’ll be in bigger trouble than I already am with NASCAR, period” — Childress responded to a question about if Hill should be suspended.

“Hell, no,” Childress said. “They didn’t do a damn thing to the No. 2 car (Austin Cindric). He wrecked Ty (Dillon) 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.”

Childress walked away.

Childress was correct in that NASCAR did not penalize Cindric during the race for hooking Dillon and wrecking him at COTA, but series officials docked Cindric 50 points and fined him $50,000 a few days later after reviewing the incident.

Almirola got to the rear of Hill’s car and got him loose as they raced for fourth with 10 laps left. The back end of Hill’s car slid out but he corrected the slide and straightened the car as Almirola moved underneath him. Hill’s car then had contact with the right rear of Almirola’s car, sending into the SAFER barrier nose-first.

“That was violent,” Almirola said of the crash, which left him sore. “To be totally honest, that was one of the hardest hits I’ve taken in my NASCAR career. The impact felt very similar to when I broke my back (in 2017 at Kansas Speedway). I’d be very interested to see the black box data from (Saturday’s) crash, but it was vicious and that’s just uncalled for.

“I got him a little bit loose to get under him because it was time to go. I would have never done that five laps into the race, but when you’re coming down to the end of the race at Indianapolis and he’s already blocked me three times, I certainly got him loose.

“I didn’t feel what he did was necessary. I felt like he could have easily fell back in line. He was damaged anyway. We were losing time to the leaders. It wasn’t like we were on pace with them. He was holding me up clearly.

“It’s just unfortunate. He obviously lost his mind right there. That was really bad judgment in my opinion.”

Almirola finished 35th. Hill placed 34th. Connor Zilisch won his third race in a row, giving JR Motorsports its 100th career Xfinity victory.