Shane van Gisbergen says he left a meeting with NASCAR and Austin Hill confused, but admits he never wants to be summoned to the sanctioning body’s hauler again.
“It was weird dynamic in the meeting and weird way how it ended,” Van Gisbergen said.
NASCAR met Saturday with Van Gisbergen and Hill as soon as the Cup Series garage opened at EchoPark Speedway regarding an incident a week ago at Chicagoland Speedway. On lap 48 in the 267-lap Chicago race, Van Gisbergen hit Hill in the rear. Hill spun, slammed the wall, and then door slammed Van Gisbergen under caution before heading to the garage. Hill finished 37th, while Van Gisbergen placed 25th.
NASCAR didn’t penalize either driver but decided it was time for the two to stop their run-ins. Trackhouse Racing Performance Director Darian Grubb accompanied Van Gisbergen to the meeting in the NASCAR hauler. Grubb, who was Tony Stewart’s crew chief 2009-2011, told Van Gisbergen this wasn’t his first trip to the NASCAR hauler, and he briefed the New Zealander on what to expect.
Hill was a man of few words when he emerged from the NASCAR hauler. He described the meeting as “interesting” and said, “NASCAR let us know what we need to do going forward.” He said he and Van Gisbergen had a conversation and he hoped there wouldn’t be any more incidents between them. When he was asked why the two kept having run-ins, he admitted he didn’t have an answer.
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Austin Hill.
Van Gisbergen said he didn’t intentionally wreck Hill.
“I intended to run in there hard and, hopefully, get inside him, and it didn’t work out,” Van Gisbergen said. “I didn’t intend to wreck him like that. I intended to put him in a difficult spot and try and dive in, but that definitely wasn’t my outcome.”
Van Gisbergen says he doesn’t know if the two have a rivalry, but “whatever it’s been between us the last three years, we never seem to race well together.”
“Obviously, I don’t want to escalate it. I’m the one with a lot to lose,” said Van Gisbergen, who’s attempting to make the post-season Chase.
“I didn’t intend to wreck him like that. I intended to put him in a difficult spot.”
“He’s (Hill) the kind of personality, I guess, who feels like he’s got to get the last laugh or the last one to strike and he threatened that, I guess. I try and race clean and do my own thing, but I guess he’s on his own agenda. I want to move on, but he’s not at that point.”
Van Gisbergen believes it’s a respect issue.
“I’ve been able to race with respect, and when I have a problem with someone, whether it’s a crash or I’ve made a mistake and got into them, I feel like everyone’s receptive, and I can move on,” Van Gisbergen said. “I never feel like I’ve been able to talk to Austin like that. He just backs up and resorts to threatening violence. It’s a weird, weird thing.”
Off the track, Van Gisbergen says he’s probably a bit more reserved than Hill but admits he’ aggressive on the track like the Richard Childress Racing driver.
“You’re gonna always clash with people like that,” Van Gisbergen said. “I’m not gonna back down or be threatened by someone, but I don’t want to fight anyone either. I’m gonna just try to carry on and race clean.”
Van Gisbergen likes the way NASCAR allows drivers to “sort it out” among themselves but when they can’t reach a resolution, then the sanctioning body steps in as it did Saturday. He said NASCAR told them there would be severe consequences if they saw retaliation moving forward. He said in Supercars a driver was “well penalized” before getting to this point.
“That’s one of the beauties of NASCAR,” Van Gisbergen said. “It’s self-policing to a point, and that’s what makes the racing good, hard, aggressive, and you know you can get away with racing each other like that and not having the fear of someone else penalizing you for little indiscretions. I hope we don’t have to go back there.”
A North Carolina native, Deb Williams is an award-winning motorsports journalist who is in her fourth decade covering auto racing. In addition to covering the sport for United Press International, she has written motorsports articles for several newspapers, magazines and websites including espnW.com, USA Today, and The Charlotte Observer. Her awards include the American Motorsports Media Award of Excellence, two-time National Motorsports Press Association writer of the year, and two-time recipient of the Russ Catlin award. She also has won an award in the North Carolina Press Association’s sports feature category. During her career, Deb has been managing editor of GT Motorsports magazine and was with Winston Cup Scene and NASCAR Winston Cup Scene for 18 years, serving as the publication’s editor for 10 years. In 2024 she was inducted into the NMPA Hall of Fame.