Officials penalize Austin Hill for tangle with Cole Custer at Charlotte

NASCAR officials penalized Austin Hill on Wednesday for his actions while racing fellow driver Cole Custer in last weekend’s NASCAR Xfinity Series event at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Hill was fined $25,000 and was docked 25 points in the Xfinity Series driver standings under Section 4.4B in the NASCAR Rule Book. That section deals with NASCAR’s Member Code of Conduct, with penalty guidelines that include:

• Wrecking or spinning another vehicle, whether or not that vehicle is removed from Competition as a result.

• Any actions deemed to compromise the safety of an Event or otherwise pose a dangerous risk to the safety of Competitors, Officials, spectators, or others.

Hill and Custer crashed with 17 laps remaining in Saturday’s BetMGM 300, when contact between Hill’s No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet and Custer’s No. 00 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford resulted in a cut tire for Hill. Hill lost control through Turns 1 and 2, collecting Custer, and Hill continued to initiate contact as the two cars reached the backstretch. The repeated contact eventually forced Custer’s car into the inside retaining wall.

RELATED: Hill, Custer mix it up at Charlotte | Race results

Hill continued and finished two laps down in 25th place. Custer was sidelined by the crash and placed 32nd.

The points penalty knocks Hill out of the lead in the Xfinity Series standings, dropping him to third place behind new leader Chandler Smith and second-place Custer.

Competition officials also penalized two teams in the Craftsman Truck Series for lug-nut violations after Friday’s race at Charlotte. Crew chiefs for the two teams were fined $2,500 each for one unsecured lug nut on their trucks:

• No. 5 Tricon Garage Toyota (crew chief Derek Smith)

• No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford (crew chief Dylan Cappello)