Austin Hill: NASCAR ‘got their point across’ in Darlington drivers meeting after Martinsville fiasco

Last week, after the smoke had settled, Austin Hill was the winner at Martinsville. He doesn’t want to win that way again, though. Today, NASCAR talked to the Xfinity Series and set the drivers straight on what the on-track expectations are for the drivers.

After the Truck Series championship in 2023, NASCAR stepped in. Since then, that series has more or less been great when it comes to clean racing. They have almost reached 20 straight races without an overtime restart, going back to last season.

Austin Hill spoke to the media at Darlington today. He was asked about that meeting as soon as he picked up the microphone.

“I would say the tone of the meeting was firm, but they got their point across, and they did it in a really good way,” Hill explained. “So, I think that was good for everyone in the series to hear, you know, the different sides of it with all three that were in there. A lot of great things were said about what we could do better going forward. I stand strongly on the side of, for whatever reason, when the Xfinity Series goes to Martinsville, we just lose our minds.

“But everyone else, we are the best racing in NASCAR, and I strongly stand behind that. That we are the best series in NASCAR. Just when you go to Martinsville, we look like we don’t know what we’re doing. So, we’re going to get through it. We have whatever it is, seven, eight months before we go back to Martinsville. I’m hoping a lot of things change between now and then. I don’t think that just one meeting is going to change the outcome of the playoff race in Martinsville.

“So, it might be one of those cases where we need to have multiple meetings throughout the year just to reiterate some of the stuff. Even if things aren’t happening on the race track. Say we’re all racing clean and we’re all doing the right things, but I think we gotta keep it in everyone’s head, you know, race the way you want to be raced and race with respect. I thought that’s kind of where we ended the conversation today and I thought it was all great.”

Austin Hill has two wins this season. He is third in points. It is another great start to the year for this 21 team at RCR. If he didn’t have those two DNFs, he likely would be in the lead for points or at least within a few points of Justin Allgaier.

Hill has made mistakes. Drivers have called him out for aggressive driving in the past. At Martinsville in 2023, Hill and Sheldon Creed made headlines with their rough racing on the final lap.

With time to reflect, the Xfinity Series should be better. The fact that it isn’t a short track will also likely help. But can they stay clean next week at Bristol?