{"id":56936,"date":"2025-08-10T05:02:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T05:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/56936\/"},"modified":"2025-08-10T05:02:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T05:02:16","slug":"nascar-news-austin-hill-triggers-watkins-glen-xfinity-series-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/56936\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR news: Austin Hill triggers Watkins Glen Xfinity Series crash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Split-Image-diagonal-nascar-crash.jpg\" alt=\"\u2018He hooked me\u2019: Controversial driver triggers massive pile-up\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAustin Hill triggered a multi-car pile-up with nine laps to go in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Watkins Glen.<\/p>\n<p>Vying for a podium place with nine laps to go, Hill tried to go around the outside of Kaulig Racing ring-in Michael McDowell at the Outer Loop.<\/p>\n<p>Hill used almost every inch of asphalt and got to McDowell\u2019s left rear quarter-panel before hooking the #11 Chevrolet Camaro into a spin.<\/p>\n<p>McDowell hit the Armco barrier on his left before bouncing to the wall on his right. His car spun violently back onto the racing line before hitting the left wall again.<\/p>\n<p>The carnage unravelled behind him as William Sawalichin in the #18 Toyota Camry and the #54 of Taylor Gray came together. Several cars managed to sneak through the mayhem, but the chaos continued.<\/p>\n<p>Among the cars that suffered damage in the crash were Jesse Love, Preston Pardus, Daniel Dye, William Sawalich, Kaz Grala, Dean Thompson, Jeb Burton, Kyle Sieg, Ryan Sieg, Anthony Alfredo, Nick Sanchez, Taylor Gray, Ryan Ellis, and Josh Bilicki.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">BIG crash with Michael McDowell getting the worst of it. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Qbd0Krqu8o\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/Qbd0Krqu8o<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 The CW Sports (@TheCW_Sports) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheCW_Sports\/status\/1954295739364020711?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">August 9, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p>McDowell was left incensed by Hill\u2019s move, radioing: \u201cWhat the heck is that guy doing? Why would he do that? I mean, he hooked me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The race ground to a halt as officials threw the red flag to clean up the mess and repair the barriers.<\/p>\n<p>After being released from the infield medical centre, McDowell explained the incident from his point of view.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t want to say anything dumb,\u201d said McDowell.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI felt like I got two good restarts there and was able to take the lead clean.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t rough up the #21 at all, I didn\u2019t feel like, but it just felt like he kept trying to move me in the Carousel \u2013 and then there I could see he was never going to get alongside me there.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was all the way out. He wasn\u2019t even alongside, just turned me. That\u2019s unfortunate for everyone at Kaulig Racing. We were trying to get a trophy there and had a couple of shots at it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Another angle of <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WilliamSawalich?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@WilliamSawalich<\/a>\u2018s 18 car getting hit by a tire from Michael McDowell\u2019s 11 car during the wreck. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/twuGwrBiuK\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/twuGwrBiuK<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 The CW Sports (@TheCW_Sports) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheCW_Sports\/status\/1954299213053120879?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">August 9, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Under the stoppage, Hill spoke with commentators via his radio.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe #11 had been struggling a little bit in front of me for a few laps through the Carousel across the middle and the exit and I thought if I got a big enough run I might get to his left side and kind of get positioning and get to his left entering [Turn] 10,\u201d said Hill.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cObviously I haven\u2019t seen the replays but I don\u2019t know if I just wasn\u2019t far enough up alongside him. I know the grass was coming up. We were running out of real estate there.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn hindsight, I probably should have just lifted and got back in line and lived to fight another corner. I hate it for everyone involved, that\u2019s definitely not what I wanted to happen coming back from what we had going on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The race eventually resumed after 45 minutes with JR Motorsports Connor Zilisch in the #88 Camaro at the head of the field.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Austin Hill triggered a multi-car pile-up with nine laps to go in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56937,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,806,805,803,804,955,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-56936","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-motor","11":"tag-motor-sports","12":"tag-motosport","13":"tag-motosports","14":"tag-nascar","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}