Denny Hamlin breaks down brewing rivalry between Shane van Gisbergen and Austin Hill

Denny Hamlin seems to be very interested in the rivalry between NASCAR Xfinity Series drivers Shane van Gisbergen (SVG) and Austin Hill. On the Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin shared his thoughts on the two drivers who got into it at the Sonoma race.

“[Hill’s] been on the worst end of this exchange. There’s no question about that,” Hamlin said. “If the score is level, then I think Shane needs to keep it clean from here on out because he’s certainly opening himself to Austin really knocking him out of the way when he needs to for a future win or future position.”

Hamlin went on to praise SVG after winning the Xfinity race on Saturday. “It’s good for Shane. We didn’t need proof that he’s good on road courses and certainly in the Xfinity Series, Hamlin said. “He’s got great technique and great car control.”

Why is there beef between Shane van Gisbergen and Austin Hill

SVG and Hill got into it late in the race. The two bumped into each other while battling for the lead. Hill slid into the grass and lost the lead, while SVG won the race. They also battled at COTA in March, and during that race, Hill shoved SVG during a double-overtime restart. SVG got back to Hill on the final lap, but both lost to Kyle Larson.

“I hate racing and thinking like that, but to me, we’ve both taken a race win off each other now,” van Gisbergen said, per NASCAR.com. “I don’t know. I didn’t go into the corner planning to take him out. Like, I wasn’t going to hit him off the track, but I was gonna try to pass him and I did everything I could. And when he kept choosing left on restarts, I was like ‘oh, that’s surprising,’ because I chose the left on the first restart and it was a mistake. And if I had the opportunity again I would have chosen the right every time.”

“I plead the fifth. I’m not gonna say anything about it,” Hill said. “We’ll just go onto the next one. Good, hard racing. Bennett Chevrolet was fast as Xfinity internet. We were holding off SVG there for a while, had that caution and I knew it was gonna be tough on the restart. Then, it didn’t work out, but we had a good points day, finished in the top five. Can’t ask for more than that.”