NASCAR fined Austin Hill $25,000 and penalized him 25 points for an incident with Cole Custer during last weekend’s Xfinity race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Hill loses the points lead with the penalty. He falls to third. Chandler Smith leads the standings with 450 points. Custer is 17 points behind Smith. Hill is 21 points behind Smith.
The incident between Hill and Custer happened in the final stage as they raced near the front. They made contact multiple times. Custer hit the outside wall and then came down on the track and hit the side of Hill’s car.
That contact cut a tire on Hill’s car, which sent him into Custer’s car in Turn 1. Custer ran along the wall while Hill kept on the gas until Custer spun.
“I don’t know if he blew a tire into [Turn] 1 or what happened into 1, but then he tried to kill me on the backstretch and just held it full throttle until he wrecked our car and killed the rear clip,” Custer said after the incident.
Hill admitted he did too much down the backstretch.
“I think I overdid it going down the backstretch and staying connected to him and spinning him out,” Hill said after the race. “I shouldn’t have done that part but everything leading up to me and him destroying our race cars, that was dumb.”
Hill finished 25th. Custer was 32nd.
Also, NASCAR announced $2,500 fines each to Xfinity crew chiefs Derek Smith and Dylan Cappello for their cars having a lug nut not safe and secure after the race. Smith is the crew chief for Anthony Alfredo. Cappello is the crew chief for Matt DiBenedetto.