Denny Hamlin has delivered a blunt assessment of Shane van Gisbergen’s controversial wreck with Austin Hill during the recently concluded NASCAR Cup Series race at Chicagoland Speedway. Discussing the incident on his podcast, Hamlin described the wreck as “premeditated” and noted that telemetry data showed SVG had “no intent to slow up” entering Turn 3 on Lap 47.
The feud between Hill and SVG stems back to their O’Reilly Series clashes in 2024 but escalated after Hill crashed SVG at the Pocono and San Diego races. When SVG wrecked the #33 driver at Chicagoland, Hill and his team accused him of delivering intentional payback for previous races.
Speaking about the Hill-SVG incident on his Actions Detrimental podcast, Denny Hamlin used harsh metaphors to describe the wreck, contrasting it directly with the Ryan Preece and Ty Gibbs incident at Texas. Preece was penalized 25 points and fined $50,000 for wrecking Gibbs.
On Lap 47, SVG made contact with Hill’s left rear, sending him crashing into the outside wall and prematurely ending his race. Afterwards, a furious Hill retaliated under caution by accelerating and intentionally door-slamming SVG’s #97 Chevy on the track apron.
In the post-race interview, SVG stated that the contact was unintentional and also apologized for the outcome. The Kiwi ended up finishing 25th at the Joliet, Illinois track.
Denny Hamlin had a strong weekend on NASCAR’s return to Chicagoland, starting from the pole and ultimately finishing the race in third place. He led 30 laps but admitted to losing control of the race's pace in Stage 3 and finished third behind teammates, winner Chase Briscoe and Christopher Bell, giving JGR a 1-2-3 team sweep.
Reflecting on his third-place finish after the race, Hamlin said (via NASCAR on NBC):
The #11 Joe Gibbs Racing driver continued his strong run and extended his regular-season championship lead to 44 points over Tyler Reddick.
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