Austin Hill returned behind the wheel of his No.21 Chevrolet on Saturday at Watkins Glen after serving a one-race suspension, but he couldn’t stay away from controversy. A contact from Hill sent Michael McDowell smashing into the wall, causing a huge wreck.
McDowell was asked about the incident after the race. The Cup Series regular acknowledged Hill’s role in the crash, but he did not make a big deal of it.
Michael McDowell Talks Austin Hill Collision at Watkins Glen
In a battle for second on Lap 74, Hill ran wide at Turn 5’s exit and clipped McDowell. Hill’s No. 11 Chevy slammed the left-side Armco barrier, got briefly airborne, then slid into the opposite barrier and right into a pack of cars.
Nine more cars got caught up in the mess, including playoff hopefuls Ryan Sieg, Taylor Gray, Jesse Love, and Jeb Burton. The wreck also brought out a red flag for repairing the damaged walls.
BIG crash with Michael McDowell getting the worst of it. pic.twitter.com/Qbd0Krqu8o
— The CW Sports (@TheCW_Sports) August 9, 2025
McDowell’s car took the heaviest hit, but his crew managed to get the car back on track and set him on course for a P27 finish. The NASCAR veteran might have hoped for a better outcome in his first Xfinity Series race in nine years, but he took it in stride.
McDowell did say Hill “turned him” after the race, but he did not see any malice in it and accepted it as a regular in-race incident.
#NASCAR … Michael McDowell on his incident with Austin Hill and why he says Hill should NOT be penalized for the contact. pic.twitter.com/Fs2RteiolP
— Dustin Long (@dustinlong) August 9, 2025
“He turned me for sure,” McDowell said. “There was no way he was going to get alongside me. There was no room there… To me, he wasn’t alongside me. Just got to my rear bumper and turned me sideways.”
But he also doesn’t want to demand a penalty for the young driver:
“I’m not talking like he intentionally hooked me. He doesn’t need a penalty for that. There was no way he was going to finish the pass there, and just made a decision not to lift and turned me. But that’s not the same as a right rear hook at an oval. I don’t want that to be the headline. Unfortunately, we had a fun race that was going good until it wasn’t.”
How Does Hill Defend His Action?
“Just two guys going for it. Nothing malicious, as much as everybody wants to sit there and try to make it more than it is. It was just two guys racing it out,” Hill said, denying hitting McDowell on purpose.
He claimed he was focused on Connor Zilisch, who was then pulling away with a lead:
“I was trying to get by the 88 (Connor Zilisch) as quick as I could because the 88 was driving away from us and thought that we could maybe have a shot at racing with him and racing for the win there.”
The No. 21 Chevrolet driver then described the sequence at the Carousel that led to contact with McDowell. He wanted to surprise the part-time Kaulig Racing driver and squeeze past him. But things didn’t go exactly as he planned.
“I had a massive run off the Carousel. I kind of thought I was trying to catch [McDowell] off guard and get to his left side. The grass was coming up in front of us. I had to get to the right. I was kind of hoping he was going to move to the right and kind of give me some room, and it just didn’t happen.”
Hill said that critics might pin the blame on him, but admitted he could have handled the situation differently:
“But if everyone wants to blame me for it, I’ll take the blame for it. I mean, I could have lifted and lived to fight another corner, and unfortunately, that’s not what happened, and it wrecked a lot of race cars. So didn’t want to come back from what we had going on the last two weeks and have this happen, but heck, it’s racing. I mean, things like this are going to happen.”
