The SVG-Austin Hill saga is not yet over! The duo were again involved in a heated battle during the Xfinity Series race at Sonoma. Grabbing his first pole win of the season, SVG was eyeing back-to-back wins, and all he needed to do was get better off Hill on a late restart. Call it hard racing or bump and run, the driver of the #97 car threw caution to the wind and nudged the #21 RCR car on the late restart.

This saw SVG take the lead late in the race; meanwhile, Hill felt like he was on the receiving end of the unfair treatment. But according to Dale Earnhardt Jr, van Gisbergen didn’t go out of bounds in grabbing his second win of the season. Instead, he shed light on the driver’s conditioning from V8 Supercars that was on display during the tussle between the two drivers at Sonoma.

Dale Earnhardt Jr explains why SVG’s aggression towards Hill wasn’t malicious

Sonoma is just one of the many venues that Shane van Gisbergen and Aystin Hill have locked horns. The seeds of this brewing rivalry can be traced back to the COTA race earlier in the season. Back then, the Kiwi Speedster was on the receiving end during the late restart run when he was roughed up by Hill. While he was busily involved in getting even with Austin Hill, it opened the door for Kyle Larson to sneak a win.

However, the roles were reversed last weekend, and in a bid to return the favor, the three-time Supercars champion made that aggressive move late in the race. However, this course of action also has a lot to do with how he dominated racing in the V8 Supercar series. Justifying the Kaulig Racing driver’s antic, Dale Jr while speaking on the DJD podcast explained, “So SVG gets out of the car and says, ‘You know, I did what I did, but we can now say that we’ve both done this to each other, and I thought and that’s the etiquette that I think they using in V8 Supercar, which is very fair’. And I don’t think SVG has a problem with Austin Hill.”

Moreover, Jr feels that both drivers are now even, considering that they both have taken a race win from each other. Furthermore, he doesn’t see the rivalry between the two drivers, pointing out how SVG still has room to grow and contest other drivers on ovals. “Does SVG and Austin Hill continue to brawl? Unlikely. Because right now, SVG isn’t where Austin Hill is on the ovals. So this probably doesn’t have the potential to continue to fester.”

Indeed, SVG has been exceptional at road courses, except at the Circuit of the Americas, where he finished P27. However, he’s yet to come up on his ovals prowess, having made it to the top 15 at seven of the 11 ovals and just one lap led. Austin Hill, on the other hand, has impressed at oval racing on multiple occasions. He started off the season with two consecutive wins at Daytona and Atlanta, and two P4 finishes at Las Vegas and Atlanta. Moreover, with the championship race slated for Phoenix, which is also an oval, the Richard Childress Racing driver seems to have an upper hand.

Whether SVG can hand a similar treatment to Hill at Ovals is a topic up for debate. However, that doesn’t mean the Kaulig Racing driver isn’t going to flaunt his dominance, whenever possible.

Shane van Gisbergen’s celebration at Sonoma aimed at Austin Hill

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We are all familiar with SVG’s epic burnouts in Supercars and NASCAR as well. And a similar show was put on by the Kiwi speedster at the wine country after he clinched his second career Xfinity Series win. However, Austin Hill wasn’t impressed with his rival’s showboating skills and decided to throw a middle finger at him as he passed by.

Initially, SVG was doing the Ken Block-style celebration for the fans, but seeing Hill’s disrespectful gesture, he deliberately directed his post-race antics towards him. Confessing his feelings and the incident between the two, SVG, while speaking on a NASCAR show via Instagram, said, “So I was doing to skid at Turn 1 because that’s where all the fans are, and then he goes past pulling the finger. So I’m like, ‘This is for you now, not the fans. I just followed him the whole lap. So eventually I passed him, just waving at him.’”

Austin Hill, on the other hand, refused to answer any questions related to the incident.

However, he did address the on-track incident, saying, “I’m just gonna leave it to the keyboard warriors on this one. I’ll let them figure out what happened. I’m sure no matter what comment I say, it’ll be wrong.”

It will be interesting to see what Austin Hill’s response to this treatment will be in the next race. Or, who knows, the fans might have to wait for another road course event to see the two drivers trading blows and contesting for a race win.