Dale Earnhardt Jr. reacts to Austin Hill-Aric Almirola Indianapolis incident, airs out frustrations with NASCAR

NASCAR handed down a ruling on the right-rear hook of Aric Almirola by Austin Hill on Tuesday. Hill was suspended for one race for the incident and will be docked all of his playoff points as a result of the suspension.

Ultimately, the governing body got it right, according to Dale Earnhardt Jr. He opened up on the incident on the Dale Jr. Download, which appeared to be recorded just before NASCAR officially handed out the penalty report.

“Now sometimes it’s hard to tell,” Earnhardt said. “But this was an easy one. This was an easy one.”

Austin Hill caught Aric Almirola with 10 laps remaining in the Xfinity Series race at Indianapolis. He right-rear hooked him, with Almirola hitting the wall in Turn 3 head-on where there was no SAFER Barrier.

Almirola described it as one of the hardest hits in his career. Earnhardt saw it as a clear suspension-worthy incident.

“Should he be suspended, yes. I think anybody that right-hooks anybody should be suspended. No question,” Earnhardt said. “The frustration is that they don’t always do it, and they judge by speed or whatever. They shouldn’t. They shouldn’t judge by speed. Because now you’ve got drivers going, ‘Huh, we’re at a slow track, I’m going to right-hook the shit out of this guy, I’ll be OK. … We’re at a fast track, can’t right-hook him today. Next week right-hooking the shit out of the guy because it’s a slow track or we’re at a slow corner.’

“That ain’t the way it goes. That ain’t the way we should look at it. Listen, not to pick on Carson Hocevar, but he right-hooks a guy at IRP on a frustrated truck race. Last year, year before, whatever. Should have been a damn suspension. (Austin) Cindric, with Ty Dillon. (It should be a) suspension! I just don’t like to think about things. One plus one is two. We’re done. And I don’t think it’s a great idea to get into the, ‘Well, it was this, it was that, it was slow, it was this track, it was this track.’ Let’s just say right-hooking is bad. It’s against the code.”

What made things worse was Austin Hill’s reaction to the contact. He was immediately defensive, as was his team. Richard Childress issued a fiery defense, saying his driver shouldn’t be suspended.

“Hell no. They didn’t do a damn thing to the 2 car [of Austin Cindric] when they, he wrecked Ty [Dillon] and admitted to it,” Childress said. “Drove him in the right rear and wrecked him at COTA. It’s who you are. We’re a blue-collar team, they give us trouble all the time.”

Earnhardt took issue with Austin Hill’s radio chatter after the incident. It did not cast him in a favorable light, the broadcaster said.

“I think if you right-rear someone and all you get is a 5-lap penalty, that you kind of keep your mouth shut and you keep on going,” Earnhardt said. “You go, ‘All right, I’ll take my five laps. Darn.’ You don’t say what he said.

“You’ve got to feel lucky that the suspension wasn’t much worse than that. But also in that moment when you’re on the radio cussing NASCAR, you’ve got to be thinking they’re not done looking at this. And you don’t want to push them towards making that decision easier for them to give you steeper penalties.”

At the end of the day, NASCAR saw fit to suspend Austin Hill. And with the suspension, his playoff points (21 of them) disappear. So he will have ground to make back up now.