Van Gisbergen, Hill had different takeaways from NASCAR meeting

Shane van Gisbergen and Austin Hill seemingly had different takeaways from their meeting with NASCAR early Saturday at EchoPark Speedway.

Van Gisbergen acknowledged it was a serious talk and that he was more remorseful and eager to move on than Hill. It was the first time the Trackhouse Racing driver had ever been called to the NASCAR hauler, which came a week after he spun Hill at Chicagoland Speedway. NASCAR did not penalize either driver but wanted to make sure everyone was on the same page moving forward.

“I left confused,” van Gisbergen said. “I know where I’m at with it. I want to move on, but he’s not at that point.”

Hill, however, countered that. The Richard Childress Racing driver said, “I sure hope so,” when asked if things were settled.

“NASCAR let us know what we need to do going forward,” said Hill of the meeting.

Van Gisbergen does believe the two are at zero, and he’ll race Hill with respect, hopefully starting to build that back up. But he said he can’t control what Hill does going forward and how he might try to affect van Gisbergen’s chances of making the Chase. More than once, van Gisbergen mentioned that he has more to lose than Hill does.

“I was racing hard, and the outcome wasn’t what I wanted, but I intended to run in there hard and hopefully get inside him, and it didn’t work out,” van Gisbergen said of the contact last weekend. “I definitely didn’t want to wreck a race car, and I definitely didn’t want to escalate a rivalry or whatever it’s been between us for the last three years. We never seem to race well together.

“Obviously, I don’t want to escalate it because I’m the one with a lot to lose. It’s a weird dynamic in the meeting and how it ended.”

The two have been at odds for the last few seasons, dating back to when van Gisbergen was full-time in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. Van Gisbergen theorized they are a lot alike, particularly on the racetrack, given how aggressive they are, which might have led to their clash.

Hill said he didn’t have an answer for why the two have had multiple run-ins.

“We’re going to go race,” Hill said of what comes next, “and I’m looking forward to it.”

NASCAR did not penalize Hill for running into van Gisbergen under caution at Chicagoland. It was looked at as emotion after Hill had been wrecked.

Hill, a full-time O’Reilly Auto Parts Series driver, started pulling double duty in the top two series at the end of May following the unexpected death of Kyle Busch. Childress plans to keep him in the car through the end of the year.

Van Gisbergen is in his second full year of Cup Series competition.

“It’s pretty cool here, you can just chat to people and it moves on,” said van Gisbergen. “I never feel like I’ve been able to talk to Austin like that. And then he backs up and resorts to threatening violence. It’s a weird thing.”