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The NASCAR XFINITY SERIES driver Austin Hill triggered a massive wreck at Watkins Glen International on Saturday afternoon and took warmth from others over it.
The incident came with nine laps to go in the race. Hill, Michael McDowell, Zane Smith and Sam Mayer were among those who chased the leader Connor Zilisch. Hill and the rest of the package came out of turn 5 as he entered the back of McDowell.
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Austin Hill goes the grid before the Nascar XFinity Series Pennzoil 250 on Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 26, 2025 in Indiana. (Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)
The accident involved several drivers when Hill took the blame for running the back of McDowell.
“Just two guys are going after it. Nothing malicious, as much as everyone will sit there and try to do it more than it is,” Hill said via Frontstretch. “It was only two guys driving it out. I tried to come with 88 (Connor Zilisch) as fast as I could because 88 drove away from us and I thought we might have a shot at fighting him and fighting for the victory there. I had a massive race from the carousel.
“I thought kind of I was trying to catch (McDowell) away and get to his left side.”
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The Nascar XFinity series runs Austin Hill leads the driver Connor Zilisch under Mission 200 at Glen at Watkins Glen International in New York, August 9, 2025. (Matthew O’Haren/IMAGN -PICTURES)
McDowell said Hill bumped him in the last two laps before the crash.
“He turned me on with certainty. I mean there’s no way he’d get along with me,” McDowell said via nascar.com. “I got clean around him on these reboot, and there at the end, as I said, I have to get a better overview of it. But for me he wasn’t next to me. Just came to my rear bumper, turned sideways.
“I don’t speak as if he intentionally hooked me. He doesn’t need a punishment for it. Just there was no way he would end the pass there and he just made a decision not to lift and turn me-but it’s not the same as a right-berry hook at an oval. That’s not what I say, so I don’t want to be communicated. I don’t want it to be the main line.”
The Nascar XFinity series runs Michael McDowell leader Brandon Jones and Riley Herbst during Mission 200 at Glen on Watkins Glen International on August 9, 2025. (Matthew O’Haren/IMAGN -PICTURES)
It is unclear if there will be further discipline for Hill. Nascar suspended him for a race for causing a crash at Iowa a few weeks ago.
