Not for the first time Shane van Gisbergen and Austin Hill engaged in a run-in on the track. At the Sonoma Raceway, SvG grabbed his second NASCAR Xfinity Series after fighting tooth and nail with RCR driver. But Hill’s actions during the last moments of the race and his comments afterward haven’t gone down well with the NASCAR fans.

It all came down to the money restart run with just 11 laps to go, and Shane van Gisbergen was trailing Hill in the second place. But with the pressure of the whole field behind him, and trying to tread the needle, SvG ran into the dirt and made an aggressive move to take the lead from Hill. The #97 and #21 even bumped into each other into Turn 2, but SvG’s momentum was too strong for Hill to handle.

This proved to be a vital moment in the race as SvG held onto his lead for the remainder of the laps and secured back-to-back wins in his rookie Xfinity Series season. Unfortunately, Hill wasn’t too impressed by how he was treated on the race track and questioned SvG’s move in trying to make the pass for the lead. He even flashed a middle finger towards the Kaulig Racing driver while he was celebrating his win with an impressive Ken Block-style drift across the race track.

Sharing his thoughts on the incident, Hill in a post-race interview said, “I’m gonna leave it to the keyboard warriors on this one, I’ll let them figure out what happened. No matter what comment I say, it’ll be wrong. I plead the fifth, I’m not going to say anything about it.” It was quite evident that Austin Hill didn’t take the defeat well and was salty about it.

This was SvG’s second victory of the season in a row. On June 1, he won his first NASCAR Xfinity Series race in Pacific Office Automation 147 at Portland International Raceway. This win may feel particularly sweet for him given how Hill bumped him at Circuit of The Americas in a heated overtime battle in March.

When asked whether the recent incident and the one from more than two months ago had now evened out the situation, Gisbergen responded, “One-hundred percent. I hate racing and thinking like that, but to me, we’ve both taken a race win off each other now. I don’t know. I didn’t go into the corner planning to take him out. Like, I wasn’t going to hit him off the track, but I was gonna try to pass him and I did everything I could.” 

Despite the crushing defeat, Austin Hill stays number two on the table while Gisbergen is up to the 10th spot. After both drivers had their say, the NASCAR fans ripped into the Hill for his gesture towards SvG, trying to spoil his picture-perfect celebration.

And keyboard warriors they became, just not the cheerful types.

“Keep crying,” Fans unimpressed by Austin Hill’s complaints after the Sonoma defeat

Shane van Gisbergen and Hill traded blows in the race at COTA in March as well. As the race went into double-overtime restart, things heated up. Hill lined up in the second row just behind SVG and shoved the New Zealander deep into Turn 1, enough to move him out of the way. This allowed Hill to move through to the lead, but SVG got back to him on the final lap and moved Hill. But both of them ended up losing to Kyle Larson.

This raises the question, after the recent duel and comments, are we witnessing a new rivalry? One fan certainly thinks so and wrote, “The rivalry we never knew we needed!” 

Hill, on the other hand, has created a reputation for being the least-liked Xfinity Series driver. The driver intentionally spun out Cole Custer during the Charlotte race a few weeks ago on May 25. The contact with Custer, sent both the drivers into the outside wall, as they received heavy damages. Hill then responded by intentionally turning Custer’s wrecked car on the backstretch. This resulted in a $25,000 fine issued to the RCR driver.

Therefore, to see him trying to plead his case for being raced hard by SvG was not going down well the fans. One fan pointed out, “Austin Hill is getting a mild taste of what he’s been doing to others for awhile now & can’t handle it. Keep crying & don’t stick that finger too far out!”

It’s not only rivals that Hill has targeted when it comes to verbally lashing out. Last year at Martinsville, teammates Hill and Sheldon Creed were fighting for the win and a Championship 4 spot. In the closing laps, the two made contact multiple times and were eliminated from the playoffs..

Speaking after the race, Hill said, “I cannot wait for him to get out of RCR.” A fan mentioned that Hill isn’t exactly respectful to anyone and wrote, “No respect. It’s clear in every post race interview Hill has that he respects no one. He thinks everyone should just pull over because he’s so good at driving a race car. These are times I miss Dale Earnhardt. He was good at teaching respect. 😉”

Some people are just so upfront with one of their qualities that they are forever remembered for it, like Earnhardt for his no-nonsense attitude.

Many fans were fuming over Hill’s disrespectful gesture aimed at Shane van Gisbergen during his victory lap. “What a chump, unsportsmanlike move on @_AustinHill’s part. He’s gonna keep this up until he’s gonna have a very difficult time even finishing a race.”

With Watkins Glen, Chicago Street Race, and Roval still lined up, this may not be the last time the fans were treated to some Austin Hill vs Shane van Gisbergen action.