NASCAR basically removed a driver from the championship battle

Austin Hill has only himself to blame for the fact that he is not competing for a NASCAR Xfinity Series championship.
Austin Hill, Richard Childress Racing, NASCAR Xfinity Series
Austin Hill, Richard Childress Racing, NASCAR Xfinity Series | Sean Gardner/GettyImages

In one of the most tonedeaf moments of the NASCAR Xfinity Series season, and possibly in the history of the series, Richard Childress Racing's Austin Hill shouted "take that, haters!" on the radio after winning Saturday's race at Talladega Superspeedway.

Hill has indeed become one of the most hated drivers in the sport, due to his on-track conduct and what many would consider habitual dirty driving. He reached a new low at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in July, when he hooked Aric Almirola in the right rear.

While he swears, to this day, that it was unintentional, NASCAR saw all they needed to see from an evidence standpoint to reach the opposite conclusion, and they suspended him for the following weekend's race at Iowa Speedway.

Because of the suspension, they also stripped him of the 27 playoff points he had earned during the regular season once the playoffs rolled around.

Austin Hill out of the playoffs due to penalty

Hill remained playoff eligible, thanks to his three regular season wins, but he lost the 15 playoff points he earned with those three wins, the six he earned with his six stage wins, and the six he earned with his fifth place finish in the regular season standings.

He started the playoffs with 2,000 points and below the round of 8 cut line, rather than 2,027 and above it, and he never worked his way above it. He closed out the opening round of 12 sitting 21 points below the cut line, meaning he would have advanced if not for the 27-point deduction.

He went on to win the aforementioned Talladega race. But while he can talk all he wants about the "haters", the reality is that he would be in the Championship 4 for the second year in a row if not for the move that effectively forced NASCAR to crack down.

Without that 27-point deduction, Hill would have qualified for the round of 8 on points, and the Talladega win would have made him the first driver to lock himself into the Championship 4.

But because he isn't one of the eight drivers still in championship contention, the Talladega win did absolutely nothing in terms of his championship chances.

So the haters will not only take that; they will be even more empowered by it, quite frankly.

There is one silver lining for Hill, and that's the fact that the No. 21 team itself wasn't punished for his actions at Indy. So the No. 21 team did get to keep all 27 playoff points, meaning that they advanced from the round of 12 to the round of 8 of the owner playoffs on points. As a result, Hill's Talladega win did lock the No. 21 team into the Championship 4 on the owner side.

Ironically, the two teams now locked into the owner Championship 4 are not teams with championship eligible drivers. Almirola locked the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing team into the owner Championship 4 by winning the round of 8 opener at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but the No. 19 Toyota is a shared entry, meaning none of its drivers are championship-eligible.

As a result, there are actually set to be six drivers competing for one or both Xfinity Series championships next weekend at Phoenix Raceway. Almirola and Hill are set to battle two others for the owner championship, while whoever those two others end up being are also set to battle two other drivers for the driver championship.

Saturday's IAA and Ritchie Bros. 250 is set to determine who those other drivers are. Live coverage from Martinsville Speedway is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. ET this Saturday, October 25. If you have yet to begin a free trial of FuboTV, do so today and don't miss any of the action!