By David Morgan, Associate Editor
HAMPTON, Ga. – After the latest episode in a feud that has stretched back over the last few years, Shane van Gisbergen and Austin Hill were called to the principal’s office – aka the NASCAR hauler – on Saturday at EchoPark Speedway for a meeting with the sanctioning body to sort out their issues.
Following their run-ins during their time in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, things between the two have heated up in recent weeks, beginning with the race in San Diego in which contact between Hill and van Gisbergen’s Trackhouse Racing teammate Connor Zilisch also swept up van Gisbergen in an early race crash – leaving him noticeably steamed.
Two weeks later, in last weekend’s race at Chicagoland, things boiled over again when Hill was spun off the front bumper of van Gisbergen, spurning comments over the radio from Hill’s Richard Childress Racing team insinuating that the contact was intentional.
Van Gisbergen would not be penalized for it, but it raised enough of a red flag that series officials wanted to have a sit down with both drivers before it escalated even further.
Following a 17-minute meeting in the hauler, the path forward for the drivers has more or less been set.
“NASCAR let us know what we need to do going forward,” Hill explained to a group of gathered reporters outside the hauler. “We’re going to go race, and yeah, I’m looking forward to it.”
Though van Gisbergen initially just described the meeting as “interesting,” he went into further detail later in the afternoon, noting that the resolution between the two was not necessarily mutual.
“One person seemed more remorseful and eager to move on than the other,” said van Gisbergen. “Yeah, it’s hard. I don’t know how much to say, but yeah. I’m happy, but obviously I got the most to lose and he doesn’t. So, who knows?”
He explained his side of the incident from Chicago and how it was not an intentional act for him to spin out Hill.
“I was racing hard and doing…The outcome wasn’t what I wanted, but intended to run in there hard and hopefully get inside him and it didn’t work out. And I definitely didn’t want to wreck a race car and I definitely didn’t want to escalate,” he said.
“I don’t really know if it’s a rivalry, but whatever it’s been between us the last three years, we never seemed to race well together. So obviously I don’t want to escalate it. I’m the one with a lot to lose. I don’t know. It was a weird dynamic in the meeting and weird way how it ended.”
Van Gisbergen continued noting how issues between drivers can largely be self-policing until it gets to a point in which the sanctioning body needs to step in and act as a referee of sorts and the issues between he and Hill have gotten to that point.
“I think what’s been cool about the sport, you can kind of sort it out yourselves and then I guess it gets to that point. To me, it’s at that point, but to him it’s not,” van Gisbergen said.
“He’s 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. But yeah, it’s what it is. So, I try and race clean and do my own thing, but I guess he’s on his own agenda.”
He added that he is ready to put their problems in the rear-view and move on, but doesn’t necessarily feel that Hill is ready to do the same.
“I left confused, but yeah, I don’t know. I know where I’m at with it. I want to move on, but he’s not at that point.”
As for what has spurned on the issues between van Gisbergen and Hill, SVG explained that it all comes down to respect, which he feels he’s not getting from Hill.
“I think it’s a respect thing. I feel like everyone here 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 quick. It’s pretty cool here,” van Gisbergen said.
“You can just chat to people and it moves on and I never feel like I’ve been able to talk to Austin like that. I don’t know. And then he just backs up and resorts to threatening violence. It’s a weird thing.”
Van Gisbergen went on to say that though he and Hill have their similarities on the race track in their aggressiveness, he has not taken kindly to the threats being lobbed his way from Hill, which has helped to fuel their feud.
“I guess we’re very similar in some ways. I’m probably a bit more reserved than him, but I’m aggressive on track, I guess, and you’re going to always clash with people like that. I don’t know,” said van Gisbergen.
“I’m not going to back down or be threatened by someone, but I don’t want to fight anyone either.”
So, what is the path forward for these two drivers? For van Gisbergen, it really all comes back to giving and showing each other respect.
“We’re obviously at zero, right? So, I have to race with respect and try and start building that up, try and cut him breaks,” said van Gisbergen.
“But if it doesn’t come my way, I don’t know how to fix him, but I’m going to just try carry on and race clean. But obviously there’s a risk. These next seven races, I got to get in the top 16, right? And he’s probably going to try threatening that. That kind of sucks, but it is what it is.”
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