Austin Hill entered the 2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series playoffs as one of the contenders to watch, riding momentum from multiple wins and stage victories. 

But a suspension tied to a deliberate wrecking incident stripped him of crucial playoff points and — as events unfolded — proved fatal to his championship hopes.

In late July at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Hill, who even faced calls to be banned, was penalized during the race for making contact with Aric Almirola. After Almirola nudged Hill’s car and sent it into a slide, Hill made a counter-move: he “hooked” Almirola’s right rear, sending him hard into the Turn 4 wall. Mark Martin made his feelings clear about the situation shortly after.

NASCAR issued a five-lap penalty for rough driving, and following review, suspended Hill for one race, forcing him to miss the Iowa Xfinity event.

Under NASCAR’s updated 2025 rules, a driver who misses a race due to a suspension is forced to forfeit all regular-season playoff bonus points. In Hill’s case, that meant he lost 21 playoff points he had already accumulated (from race wins, stage wins, etc.). 

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NASCAR granted him a waiver to remain playoff-eligible, but the ruling was clear: those bonus points would not be reinstated, nor would he accumulate new playoff points in the remainder of the regular season.

Thus, when the playoffs arrived, Hill was handicapped. Whereas before the penalty he might have entered with a buffer of bonus points to help cushion any slipups, he was forced into elimination rounds playing without that safety cushion.

When Hill was ultimately eliminated, the margin was 21 points below the cutline, not to mention an additional 6 points he might have gained from his regular season standings that were rendered moot by the penalty. 

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In statements after his return from suspension, Hill insisted the contact was unintentional and that he would continue racing aggressively.

“I’ll probably get backlash for it, but absolutely not,” said Hill, when asked if he will change the way he races his fellow competitors. “I’m gonna still race the way I always do. I’m a hard-nosed racer. It was fully unintentional. It’s easy for me saying that right now with it being two weeks out, but I’m an extremely honest person.”

However, Almirola publicly declared the move as “definitely intentional.” 

The severity of the crash and Hill’s subsequent suspension made him the first driver in the Xfinity Series to lose playoff points as part of a suspension tied to on-track behavior.