Van Gisbergen and Hill react to clash

The key to another Shane van Gisbergen NASCAR Xfinity Series win was a late move on Austin Hill, which has been labelled as “hard racing.”

After starting the final stage sixth, van Gisbergen picked off his rivals until he found the bumper of leader Hill.

Their rivalry, which started memorably with a flashpoint at COTA, started a new chapter at Sonoma as they raced side by side for victory.

At the final restart with 11 to go, Hill tried to take track position but could not quite clear the #97.

Having seen an opening, the Kiwi went deep into Turn 2 and clipped the grass and kerb before making side to side contact with Hill.

It proved to be the deciding moment of the race as van Gisbergen muscled his way into the lead and was never challenged from there, winning by 3s. Meanwhile, Hill dropped to fifth.

Speaking in Victory Lane for the second time in as many weeks after also winning in Portland, van Gisbergen simply said it was an example of hard racing.

Shane van Gisbergen and Austin Hill clash fighting for the lead. Image: Fox Sports

“Firstly I have to thank these guys at Kaulig Racing so much. The Weathertech Camaro got beat up again but what a race,” he said.

“I was up and down all day and at that restart I just gave it all I had. There were two guys going for the same real estate and came together.

It was pretty awesome though and a lot of fun.”

Van Gisbergen also highlighted his early battles with NASCAR Cup Series star Ty Gibbs, who had the pace to compete with the #97 before getting caught in the big crash at Turn 4.

SVG also made it clear his next big target is winning on an oval.

“It was awesome racing with Ty Gibbs at the start,” van Gisbergen said.

“We were pushing each other but it is special to win two road courses as well.

“Now one day I want to dream of winning on an oval.”

On the other side of the equation, Hill refused to comment much about getting muscled out by SVG.

“I am going to leave it to the keyboard warriors to figure out what happened with this one,” he said.

“No matter what comment I say, it will be wrong.

“I fell to fifth and won’t say anything about it, good hard racing and go onto the next one.

“We were holding off SVG for a while but at that caution I knew it was going to be tough on the restart and it didn’t work out.”

Photo by LAT Images

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Shane van Gisbergen won his first Xfinity Series race on the weekend in Portland, a week before Cam Waters and Will Brown join him as Cup Series drivers. The NASCAR racing was typically entertaining too.

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