Austin Hill fined $25k, docked 25 points for wrecking Cole Custer at Charlotte

NASCAR announced Wednesday it has fined Austin Hill $25,000 and assessed him with a loss of 25 driver points for violating the Member Code of Conduct during this past Saturday’s BetMGM 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Hill intentionally wrecked Cole Custer on the back straightaway with 17 laps remaining in the race after the two made contact with each other coming off of Turn 2.

Not happy. Austin Hill sends Cole Custer around at Charlotte. 😳 pic.twitter.com/NFiX9lDn0e

— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) May 25, 2024

As a result of the penalties, Hill goes from being the points leader to 21 points behind Chandler Smith for the lead and four points behind Custer for second.

Explaining himself after the race, Hill said the incident really started coming off of Turn 4 and down the frontstretch on the previous lap. Hill said that Custer doored him and cut his right front tire down, thus causing him to make contact with him in the corner.

Austin Hill explains Cole Custer incident at Charlotte

“Well just watching the replay, the replay’s not the greatest,” Hill said. “They did a really good job showing everything that went on, not really. But yeah, I just came off of four, everybody’s on old tires, scuffs when we came in and pitted and I’m like in a slide trying to stay off of him. I mean his right rear barely might have skimmed the wall, didn’t hurt his car any.

“Then he completely lost his mind down the frontstretch. Doored me so hard that it cut the right front down. But getting into one, I didn’t really know the right front was down yet and I drive into one really deep because I’m going to drive in with him and right front was down and it’s not going to turn, right? So, got into him. And then I probably got a little too carried away down the backstretch and I didn’t let him go.

“So that part I apologize about. But I don’t apologize about racing him off of four. I do not know what he’s mad about. It’s not like he slammed the wall really hard or messed his car up any. So, I guess he’s gonna need to go back and watch it because I don’t get it. It was very uncalled for to door us as hard as he did down the frontstretch and then we cut a right front down and we take us both out. So, it is what it is though. I’ve never had a problem with Cole, so I don’t know if he’s ever had a problem with me. That was definitely weird. I’m sure we’ll talk about it, but yeah. Cole and I have always race really well together, so I’m not sure what he’s so mad about.”

Cole Custer speaks out on intentional wreck by Austin Hill

Custer said of the incident, “he tried to kill me on the backstretch.”

“Yeah, I mean he put me in the fence off four and then we hit on the front stretch because I was going to pinch him down and he decided to try and go up and side draft me and then we hit again,” Custer said. “Then I don’t know if he blew a tire into [Turn 1] or what happened into one, 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.

“Slammed my head against the back of the headrest and I don’t know. I know it was hard racing but at the end of the day I don’t like getting intentionally wrecked and killing the front rear clip on our race cars. So, it’s just ridiculous. If he wants to drive like a pissed-off teenager, it’s ridiculous. I mean that’s why – I’ve said enough I guess.”

Hill finished P25, while Custer came away with a P32 result.