NASCAR Xfinity Series star Austin Hill went viral after his recent win at Talladega Superspeedway, in which he was snapped showing fans his middle finger out of the window of his No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.
Hill’s win marked his second in a row at Talladega and his fourth overall this season, although it won’t help him in his hunt for a first championship, having been knocked out in the Round of 12.
The incident has proved divisive on social media, with fans either loving or hating his attitude. However, as far as Dale Earnhardt Jr. – whose Xfinity Series team just announced a new signing – is concerned, when taking into account the context of the situation, he felt NASCAR needs “to embrace this to an extent.”
The context in question came via the fan who took the photo in question, after they chose to give their side of the story in a subsequent post. The user, who goes by @TheDrChimp, wrote, “To clarify some context to the picture: Yes he flipped us off. Yes we did it first. Yes we thought it was hilarious. No he shouldn’t be punished.
“I respect the gesture and it adds to the needed personality the field needs. I may hate him, but I love to hate him cuz that’s sports.”
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Later, they went on to respond to Kenny Wallace’s take on the sitation with further context, commenting, “I don’t follow [Hill] track to track. Just a regular Dega attendee who saw him win back to back. I loved his reaction and I respect him now.”
As for Earnhardt, speaking on the ‘Dale Jr. Download,’ he agreed with the fan’s take that NASCAR should ‘let it slide,’ suggesting “it does add some color. And there’s not a lot of people out there willing to be the villain, to be the bad guy.”
Earnhardt added that he felt Cup Series title favorite Denny Hamlin deserved “a little credit” in this case, as he’s demonstrated how a driver can take on this persona “and survive it” without it impacting his career negatively.
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“Denny has opened doors to show, ‘Hey, this is how you engage with fans. This is how you can give it back to them,'” Earnhardt said.
That being said, there are boundaries which shouldn’t be crossed, with the 50-year-old clarifying that had Hill “driven down the front straightaway with his arm out the window doing it to everybody, it would have been one thing, but it wasn’t that. It was once it was a response to some individuals in the grandstands. They’ve cleared it up, and I think it’s fair game.”
Earnhardt’s laid-back response was a million miles off that of fellow ex-NASCAR driver Jimmy Spencer, who addressed the situation on the ‘Door Bumper Clear‘ podcast. “I’ve never done that in my life. That’s a stupid son of a b–. Oh my God,” he said, going on to add, “You can’t do that, the fans always right. He should be fined for that.”