Joe Gibbs Racing star Aric Almirola demanded NASCAR ban Richard Childress Racing driver Austin Hill after a controversial incident in the Xfinity Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
In a race featuring Kyle Larson among two Cup Series stars on ‘Double Duty’, a decision which forced broadcasters into a late change in the booth, there was controversy involving two of the front-runners late on.
Almirola was racing behind the fourth-placed Hill with ten laps remaining when Hill got loose and pulled off a spectacular save.
However, after straightening his No.21 car, he instantly veered left and collected the right rear of Almirola’s No.19, hooking him viciously into the wall in a hard hit.
Hill quickly tried to clear-up his intentions by declaring on his radio: “I couldn’t hang onto it; I was not trying to right-rear him”.
But Almirola instantly called for NASCAR to ban Hill for intentially putting him into the wall, declaring: ”If NASCAR is setting a precedent, the 21 shouldn’t be racing next week!”
He later said in his interview outside the Infield Care Center on The CW that he felt the wreck was “definitely intentional” and called the crash “one of the hardest hits of my career”, comparing it to a crash where he broke his back at Kansas in 2017.
Hill was punished immediately by NASCAR as he was parked for five laps for wreckless driving, but many, including those in the broadcast booth, felt that did not go far enough.
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Hill, however, protested his innocence in an X-rated rant as he declared: “They can go —- themselves. Fuck NASCAR.
“That is —-ing bull —-. I’m sideways. I go to correct it back to the left, it gets locked to the left, I get run into the 19.”
If Hill does get suspended for a race in the aftermath, then it would see him give up all playoff points earned during the regular season after new regulations introduced in the offseason.