Beginning this year, NASCAR reserved the right to take away all playoff points earned during the regular season by any driver who misses any regular season race.
While an absence such as Denny Hamlin's absence from the Cup Series race at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in mid-June was considered acceptable, and he understandably kept his 29 playoff points come playoff time since he missed that race for the birth of his third child, Austin Hill's suspension was not.
Hill was suspended for the early August race at Iowa Speedway after hooking Aric Almirola in the right rear the previous week at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Though Hill, to this day, denies that he did it intentionally, his white gloves certainly tell a different story in literally every single one of the replay angles.
Austin Hill's 27 missing playoff points could bite him
Hill would have started the playoffs with 27 playoff points, thanks to his three regular season wins (15), six regular season stage wins (6), and fifth place finish in the regular season standings (6). That would have placed him third in the opening playoff standings with 2,027 points, behind only JR Motorsports teammates Connor Zilisch and Justin Allgaier.
Instead, he opened up the 12-driver postseason in 12th place in the point standings, with that suspension placing him five points outside of the provisional round of 8 picture; he would have started out sitting 22 points above the cutoff.
After a 19th place finish in the round of 12 opener at Bristol Motor Speedway, Hill is up to 11th in points, but it's become clear that those 27 missing points could very well come back to haunt him, as he has fallen to 16 points below the round of 8 cut line.
Joe Gibbs Racing rookie Taylor Gray currently occupies the eighth and final spot above the cut line. Richard Childress Racing's Jesse Love and Big Machine Racing's Nick Sanchez are both 13 points ahead of Hill, who leads only JR Motorsports' Sammy Smith by eight after Smith's Bristol DNF.
The cutoff would be between Haas Factory Team's Sheldon Creed in eighth and Gray in ninth had Hill not been stripped of those 27 playoff points, as he'd currently be fifth and 11 points above the cut line.
The playoffs are scheduled to resume with race two of three in the round of 12 at Kansas Speedway on Saturday, September 27. The Kansas Lottery 300 is set to be shown live on the CW Network beginning at 4:00 p.m. ET, so start a free trial of FuboTV and don't miss it!