Dale Earnhardt Jr. dives into the mindset of Austin Hill, Richard Childress: NASCAR ‘f*cked us over’

Austin Hill and Richard Childress Racing have found themselves in plenty of controversy in the NASCAR Xfinity Series this season. Hill served a one-race suspension for his right rear hook of Aric Almirola at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, in turn forfeiting all of his playoff points and any he earns for the remainder of the regular season.

He returned from his suspension this past Saturday at Watkins Glen International and once again, Hill was in the middle of a controversial wreck. Racing against Michael McDowell for P2 in Stage 3 of Hill got to the inside of his left quarter panel. The two cars made contact, and McDowell slammed into the wall. Soon after, dirt was in the air and multiple cars came piling into the area. In total, 16 cars were involved in the wreck, which brought out the red flag. 

Even before the race, Hill was not in a remorseful mood for what happened at Indianapolis: “I know that when I go to my grave way down the road that it wasn’t done on purpose.” Dale Earnhardt Jr. described the mindset of Hill and RCR as “y’all [NASCAR] f*cked us over.”

“Austin and them feel like they got dead wronged. Austin Hill did not come to the Glen with his tail between his legs in remorse. RCR didn’t, Richard don’t,” Earnhardt said on the Dale Jr. Download. “They’re of the mindset that ‘Y’all f*cked us over, man, and y’all took our points and you’ve put us in this position where we’re gonna f*cking come back swinging. Round 2, motherf*cker, here it comes.’

“That’s their attitude, and honestly, I’m battling with this internally because that’s always been their attitude — this ain’t new. RCR’s always been the scuffler, the aggressive ‘don’t push us, we’ll push back twice.’ They don’t put up with shit.”

Austin Hill avoids penalty for incident with Michael McDowell at Watkins Glen

The same way he was adamant he didn’t wreck Almirola on purpose at Indianapolis, Hill said much of the same of the incident with McDowell. Elton Sawyer, NASCAR‘s senior vice president of competition, said Tuesday they “don’t see anything at this time” to suggest that Hill would be penalized. Sawyer viewed it as a racing incident, though he acknowledged that some drivers made “some bad decisions” over the weekend.

Childress felt that Hill’s one-race suspension was unwarranted. In this latest incident, they dodged a bullet. Still, Childress and NASCAR haven’t seen eye-to-eye on several things over the years. Earnhardt admitted it’s been tough to watch NASCAR and a team he respects as much as RCR going at it.

“The NASCAR world is better when Richard and NASCAR are friendly. I don’t love the NASCAR world where Richard is mad at NASCAR,” Earnhardt said. “He was mad at them after Indy, and they got him walking to the garage and all that shit. I don’t love that visual because I grew up where RCR is like family. My dad drove for them… they are great people. Richard is still like family. Austin [Dillon] — we all talk… we’re bonded.

“It’s tough for me because I want them to succeed and I want them to be appreciated and respected. This been a tough little stretch in terms of how they handle things. I don’t know what the end result here is.”