Tempers flared towards the end of the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at the Circuit of the Americas on Saturday. Although Kyle Larson was the one who emerged victorious, there was a tussle for P2 between Austin Hill and Shane van Gisbergen as they pushed each other off the track on separate occasions.
And this might have led to some frustrations in the #21 Richard Childress Racing driver who didn’t mince words when it came to taking digs. However, Hill’s spotter quickly retorted back indicating how he believes that the Kiwi did nothing wrong.
A tussle between two uber-talented drivers led to frustration at COTA
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SVG is a master of road courses and his skills were on full display at the iconic race track of COTA. The Kaulig Racing star ran near the front of the pack and led several times before finishing P2. However, after the race, he was handed a 30-second time penalty for cutting a corner, which saw him drop down to P27. Hill ended up taking the second-place finish instead.
It was the Richard Childress Racing driver who started the tussle with the Supercars champion. He forced SVG off the track to take the lead away from him. On the last lap, the Kiwi returned the favor and dropped him from P1 to P3 as Kyle Larson swooped past them on the inside. And it’s safe to say that Austin Hill was not happy with the maneuver SVG pulled despite him doing the exact same thing a few laps back.
“Bunch of si****s over there,” the driver of the #21 car said. His spotter, Derek Kneeland shot down these accusations as he said that he would have done the same thing to finish in a winning position. “No offense, I would do the same thing to win,” Kneeland said to his driver’s annoyance.
"Bunch of sissies over there" Austin Hill says of Kaulig Racing.
"No offense, I would do the same thing to win" his spotter Derek Kneeland responds.
— Dustin Albino (@DustinAlbino) March 23, 2024
The Richard Childress Racing driver is one of the most talented racers in the Xfinity Series today but his comments against Kaulig Racing and especially Shane van Gisbergen did not go down well with the NASCAR community.
Fans gang up against Richard Childress Racing star after his vengeful comments
One user implied that Hill was the kind of driver who would race others hard but complain if the same was done to him. “‘I’m mad because I got raced the same way I race’ is basically what he said,” they commented. Another user suggested that his spotter was just tired of his crying and asked him to get on with it in a nice way. “Spotter basically said ‘Austin, quit bit****g’ lolol,” they quipped.
"I'm mad because I got raced the same way I race" is basically what he said
— Austin 😀👍 (@riblit_) March 24, 2024
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One fan believed that the Kiwi driver was right to shove the RCR man off the track as he had done the same a few laps earlier. “I’ve defended Hill when MASCAR Twitter had gone at him before. But the dude has absolutely nothing to complain about. He moved Shane for the lead, Shane moved him. Neither of them were spun or lost that much as a result. About as equal as you can get for outcomes of trading blows,” they wrote.
Read More – Xfinity Star Calls Out COTA Rival’s “Etiquette” as He Defends Heated Post-Race Interaction With Bold Claim
Another user commented on the braking and said, “Says the guy that litterally brake checked SVG into a corner. Sure SVG was going agro, but he was just bumping Hill’s corner, and would have been fine if Hill didn’t brake check.” A user warned Hill for the trashing and commented, “He better hope he is at RCR forever because trashing every other company is not forgotten in the racing world.” One more user said, “Hill used up SVG in turn 1 and then complained when he got punted back.”
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It’s unclear whether the two drivers have spoken after the race but one thing is for certain, Austin Hill will now have a point to prove going into the next Xfinity Series race of the season. It will be interesting to see how he performs in Richmond next weekend.