Did Shane van Gisbergen intentionally wreck Austin Hill in NASCAR payback?

On Lap 47 of Sunday's NASCAR Cup race at Chicagoland Speedway, Austin Hill was running 28th, trying to defend against Shane van Gisbergen. Entering Turn 3, Van Gisbergen slammed into the left-rear of the No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevy, sending Hill spinning into the outside wall.

Hill's race was over, and he doored Van Gisbergen under caution before taking his mangled car behind the wall.

Watch: In-car cameras and team radios from Hill-SVG squabble

It was clear that Van Gisbergen drove into the corner far deeper than Hill while following in his tire track, but Hill also moved down in reaction to Van Gisbergen, attempting to aero-block him. You can also see on the SMT data that Van Gisbergen did drive in far deeper than usual before lifting off.

SVG did not address the incident at all on the radio, only talking about his cars handling as the yellow flag waved.

On the contrary, the RCR team radio lit up following the incident.

"Just wait," said Hill. The team quickly told him "don't talk about it." In recent clashes where drivers delivered payback, penalties were only issued when drivers vocalized their intentions, which was likely the deeper meaning in that exchange.

"Yep, just Van-Guggenheimer or however you say his f****** last name," radioed spotter Derek Kneeland.

"It was payback for California," replied Childress.

After the team tried to repair the car on pit road, Hill rolled back onto the track and approached Van Gisbergen's car. "Big picture, Austin, please," the team pleaded with him, right before Hill slammed into Van Gisbergen's driver's door and then took his car to the garage. 

Hill's race was over, but this long-time rivalry with SVG is surely only going to escalate after this. These two drivers clashed as far back as 2024 when they competed against each other full-time in the NASCAR O'Reilly Series.

But more recently, Van Gisbergen blamed Hill for two incidents at Pocono and San Diego, even calling him a 'spud' in a June video VLOG.

At Pocono, Hill pushed up the track while battling three wide, causing the two cars above him (including SVG) to crash. But the truly explosive run-in came at San Diego. While battling Connor Zilisch for the lead on a restart, Hill missed the apex and triggered a multi-car crash. Van Gisbergen was directly behind it, and was destroyed in the ensuing melee. He blocked Hill as he tried to drive away from the accident scene, and chose not to talk about Hill when asked in interviews that immediately followed.

Austin Hill reacts

Outside the infield care center, Hill spoke with the media including Motorsport.com:

"I'm sure you all have seen the replay," said Hill. If I need to explain it, people probably need to get glasses…”

On if it SVG should be penalized, Hill remarked: "Possibly.  If there's definitive evidence. I'll leave it in NASCAR's hands." 

He also said they have no spoken with each other since the San Diego crash, noting that they "don't see eye-to-eye."

As for the moment of contact, Hill noted that he "was entering the corner normal. Everyone blocks everybody's air off, that's the way these Cup cars are From my standpoint, it just looks like he sped up, so who knows."

After the race, Van Gisbergen was asked if he'll talk to Hill, to which he replied: “I’ll talk to him, but he just grunts."