Cole Custer and Austin Hill picked fresh beef with each other in the latest Xfinity Series race in Charlotte. The defending champion and Hill were battling for a top-five position with the laps ticking down when they made contact in the front stretch. Hill ended up blowing his right front tire and retaliated by locking bumpers with Custer’s car and throwing it to the inside wall.
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Custer was wrecked out of the race and Hill went on to finish in 25th place. The champion did not have any words of affection for Hill when speaking to the press. He seethed, “I don’t know if he blew a tire into [turn] 1 or what happened into 1, but then he tried to kill me on the backstretch and just held it full throttle until he wrecked our car and killed the rear clip. I slapped my head against the back of the headrest.”
“He tried to kill me on the backstretch and just held it full throttle until he wrecked our car and killed the rear clip” -Cole Custer blasts Austin Hill after the wreck at Charlotte:
@stephen_stumpf #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/CwH0rnZnCr
— Frontstretch (@Frontstretch) May 25, 2024
While he did acknowledge that they’d just been racing hard to a certain extent, being intentionally wrecked wasn’t something he took lightly. “It’s just ridiculous,” he continued. “If he wants to drive like a pissed off teenager, it’s just ridiculous. I’ve said enough.” From Hill’s point of view, however, Custer had made a grave mistake by contacting him on the front stretch.
Austin Hill defends his position against Cole Custer
Hill was mad at Custer for a door slam off Turn 4 after the restart. He blamed Custer for intentionally slamming him and cutting his tire down in the process for no mistake of his. “Didn’t hurt his car any and then he completely lost his mind down the front stretch, doored me so hard it cut the right front down,” he said. Despite the staunchness, Hill did apologize for turning Custer into the inside wall.
He acknowledged that he’d got carried away in the backstretch and didn’t let Custer go forward by locking bumpers. Interestingly, the champion wasn’t the only driver that Hill had a problem with in Charlotte this weekend. He was caught in a scuffle with Sammy Smith as well. The 19-year-old JR Motorsports youngster told the media that Hill had blocked him and packed him with air.
“I feel like I try to pass [Hill] clean every week and not try to be a dirty racer,” he said. Despite Hill’s apology, Custer will not be one to forget the Charlotte race for a long time. Hill currently sits at the top of the Xfinity Series points table with Custer in third.
