"Forever the victim": NASCAR fans turn on Richard Childress for defending Austin Hill

NASCAR fans shared their brutal criticism for Richard Childress following his comments on Austin Hill's penalty in the Xfinity Series.

NASCAR penalized Hill five laps for reckless driving during Saturday's Pennzoil 250 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Hill's left-rear contact on Aric Almirola sent him into the outside wall in a violent crash, which NASCAR deemed intentional and confirmed a formal review is ongoing.

Childress responded with a "Hell no," when asked whether Hill should face suspension. The RCR team owner also linked the penalty to the Circuit of The Americas Cup race, where NASCAR fined and penalized 50 points to Austin Cindric for right-rear hooking Ty Dillon.

Fans were quick to voice their backlash online.

"Typical Richard. Forever the victim," a user wrote. "We’re a blue collar team… LOL…if their hires weren’t nepo-babies or thugs maybe they wouldn’t have such problems," another replied. "It's time for Richard to leave. He has no good reputation left in this sport. The only smart thing this man has done the last 2 decades is hire Kyle Busch. Unfortunately for Busch that was career suicide," another stated.

Hill and Almirola battled hard for fourth place at Indy. Almirola nudged Hill loose in Turn 3 and the latter then veered down into Almirola’s right rear. Hill radioed that the crash was not deliberate and blamed Almirola for causing him to lose control. Meanwhile, Almirola described the impact as brutal. He compared it to the crash where he broke his back in 2017 and said it felt intentional.

"Richard Childress has turned into a joke. Both Childress and Austin Hill are meatheads," a fan wrote. "Right rear hook into a 90 degree turn at 170+ should be a common sense suspension. Although I do think that consistency from NASCAR should be key. They definitely opened up some gray area on the Cindric ruling at COTA," another shared.

Hill finished one spot ahead of Almirola in 34th place. NASCAR will deliver its final word on Hill before the next Xfinity race at Iowa Speedway on August  2.

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What did Richard Childress say?

When pressed on whether Austin Hill deserved suspension, Richard Childress warned that speaking out could land him in bigger trouble with NASCAR and then he laid out his defense.

"Hell, no. [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. It’s who you are. We're a blue-collar team. They give us trouble all the time," Richard Childress said.

Hill, who is in his fourth full-time season in the Xfinity series, has collected three wins so far. He is ranked fifth in the points standings and will lose all playoff points if suspended next week.

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Edited by Luke Koshi