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NASCAR Xfinity Series drivers Austin Hill and Aric Almirola got into a nasty wreck during the Pennzoil 250 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Saturday afternoon.
Hill and Almirola were coming around a turn with 10 laps to go in the race. Almirola got into the back of Hill and sent him sliding up the track. Almirola tried to go around him, but Hill came down and sent Almirola spinning to the wall.
Almirola hit the wall hard while Hill spun in the grass before coming back up the track and making contact with the wall as well. Hill was hit with a five-lap penalty because of the controversial hit. He told his team over the radio that it hadn’t been intentional.
Almirola disagreed.
“It was definitely intentional,” Almirola told the CW after being released from the infield care center, via NASCAR.com. “He blocked me three times. I finally got him loose in (Turn) 3. He had damage on the nose, so he was really slow in the corners. It was time to go. I mean, we’re coming to nine to go, and the leaders are starting to put a gap on us, so it’s time to go.”
Almirola was uninjured, but he said the crash reminded him of a 2017 wreck in which he had broken his back.
“That was violent, to be totally honest,” he added. “That’s one of the hardest hits I’ve taken in my NASCAR career. The impact felt very similar to when I broke my back. I’d be very interested to see the black-box data from that crash, but it was vicious, and that’s just uncalled for.”
Hill told his team he couldn’t hang onto the car as he was getting loose.
Team owner Richard Childress defended Hill and doesn’t think he should be suspended over it.
“(NASCAR) didn’t do a damn thing to (Austin Cindric). He wrecked (Ty Dillon) and admitted to it, drove him in the right rear, and wrecked him at COTA,” Childress said, via Motorsports Wire. “It’s who you are. We’re a blue-collar team. They give us trouble all the time.”
Connor Zilisch picked up the victory.
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