By Seth Eggert, Writer
CONCORD, N.C. – A rare Richard Childress Racing engine issue in Saturday evening’s Blue Cross NC 250 at the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway ROVAL ended Austin Hill’s chances of making the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs’ Round of Eight.
The driver of the No. 21 Bennett Transportation Chevrolet was running inside the top-10 when his car started to struggle exiting turn seven. The top-end speed disappeared from Hill’s car as an apparent issue with a spark plug zapped his speed.
While he continued to run strong on the infield section of the 2.28-mile road course, the Winston, Ga. native was a sitting duck on the oval portion of the track. One-by-one Hill relinquished positions on the backstretch and slipped below the playoff cutline.
Despite a late-race caution for Joey Gase Motorsports’ Sage Karam with four laps to go, there wasn’t enough time during the ensuing pit stops for the Chad Haney (crew chief) led crew to make the essential repairs. Down on power, Hill took the checkered flag in 28th.
“Coming off turn seven, we started to have a mechanical issue,” Hill explained. “It’s just an unfortunate end to the night. Everyone at RCR and ECR have been great all year. I haven’t had any engine issues since joining RCR, and I wouldn’t want any other power under the hood. We win as a team, and we lose as a team. Our No. 21 team will look to be a spoiler in the final four races and try to bring Richard Childress an owners championship in the process.”
The engine issue at Charlotte’s ROVAL was not the only factor that played into Hill’s playoff elimination. As Hill recounted, his team missed the setup at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway two races earlier that left him outside the top-15 throughout that race.
“It’s a bummer,” Hill said. “I can go back to Bristol where we did not have a good race to start this round. We missed the setup and ran outside the top-15 all day. We had a really good day last week in Kansas and finished third to make sure we were within striking distance to start today’s race.
“Then today, we did our job in the first two stages, getting stage points and putting ourselves in a position to advance to the next round. In stage three, we were driving through the field with our Bennett Transportation & Logistics Chevrolet and leading the cars on our strategy. I was simply biding my time and not overusing my tires, knowing that it was going to be a longer run.
In addition to the poor showing at Bristol, the repercussions of Hill’s actions in the Pennzoil 250 at Indiana’s Indianapolis Motor Speedway also played a role. After intentionally right-hooking Joe Gibbs Racing’s Aric Almirola into the outside wall, the NASCAR Next alumnus was suspended for the following race at Iowa Speedway.
Although he was granted a waiver, in accordance with NASCAR’s current rules, the 31-year-old was stripped of the 21 playoff points he had earned at that time. Hill was also ineligible for the six additional points he would have earned at the end of the regular season for being fifth in points.
Combined, that was a 27 point loss. Hill missed making the next round of the playoffs by 21 points.
“There’s been things that have been just going on wrong, things that I could do better as a driver,” Hill admitted. “I’ve made a lot of mistakes throughout the middle portion of the season and later on, and I thought we were turning it around there at Kansas, having a strong showing, and we were showing it here today and just came up short.”
Now out of the playoffs, Hill has the opportunity to play spoiler in the remaining four races of the season. The first of those races is the Focused Health 302 at Las Vegas (NV.) Motor Speedway. In eight races at Las Vegas he has one win in the 2023 Alsco Uniforms 300, where he led 19 laps on the way to victory lane.
Broadcast coverage of the Focused Health 302 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway starts at 7:30 p.m. ET, live on The CW, the Performance Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.