Austin Hill, who was suspended for last weekend’s NASCAR Xfinity Series event at Iowa Speedway, has officially been granted a Playoff Waiver by NASCAR, according to a Tuesday night report from NASCAR.com.
By receiving the Playoff Waiver, Hill will remain eligible to contend for a championship in the NASCAR Xfinity Series this season, but due to the tweaked Playoff Waiver rules last offseason, Hill will forfeit all 21 Playoff Points he had earned prior to the suspension, as well as any Playoff Points that he earns through the end of the NASCAR Xfinity Series regular-season.
Hill, 31, will return to his normal position behind the wheel of the No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet this weekend in the Mission 200 at The Glen at Watkins Glen International. The Georgia native has three victories so far this season and will look to add to that total this weekend at a track, where his career-best finish in three starts is a 14th, which he achieved in 2023.
The hard-nosed racer enters this weekend’s event 122 points behind Connor Zilisch and Justin Allgaier, who are tied for the championship lead in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.
A week ago, Austin Dillon, who drives the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, filled in for the suspended Hill in the HyVee Perks 250 at Iowa Speedway. Dillon was involved in an early incident, but was able to salvage a respectable 13th-place result for the No. 21 Richard Childress Racing team.
Hill was suspended by the sanctioning body following his actions in the Pennzoil 250 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway a couple of weeks ago. With 10 laps remaining in that event, Hill was engrossed in a battle with Aric Almirola for the fourth position.
As Almirola got Hill loose to take the position in Turn 3, Hill, obviously upset by the maneuver that nearly crashed him moments before, turned hard left into the right-rear quarterpanel of Almirola’s No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota GR Supra, which sent Almirola hard into the outside wall.
Almirola described the head-on impact at Indianapolis as one of the hardest in his lengthy NASCAR National Series career.
