Austin Hill triggers vicious track-breaking crash at Watkins Glen

Watkins Glen produced another wild day of racing on Saturday with the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Teammates collided in the battle for the win, and after returning from a one-week suspension for reckless driving, Austin Hill caused a massive accident.

While battling for second place, Michael McDowell and Hill both ran wide at the exit of the carousel. Approaching the edge of the pavement, Hill tried to get alongside McDowell with the guardrail rapidly approaching.

The two cars collided, and McDowell slammed the guardrail on the left side of the track. The No. 11 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet spun wildly across the track, slamming the opposite guardrail and going partially airborne. The destroyed race car spun back across the track again as a massive track-blocking wreck unfolded.

Some cars had nowhere to go, but others did not slow down appropriately, causing the wreck to be even bigger than it already was. Over a dozen drivers were involved and with destroyed cars littering the track, the red flag was displayed with eight laps to go.

Lengthy repairs were needed to the guardrail as several cars were dragged away from the accident scene. The red flag lasted over 45 minutes. McDowell, William Sawalich, Josh Bilicki, Ryan Sieg, Kyle Sieg, and Ryan Ellis were among those unable to continue due to damage.

During the stoppage, The CW spoke with Hill about the incident while he was sitting in his race car.

“Mainly, I would get to people’s right sides, and that time, I ended up getting to his left side,” explained Hill. “I thought that it could work. We obviously don’t have a ton of spotters around here. I don’t know if he has a spotter off of that carousel corner. He might not. But as soon as I saw he was staying tight to the grass, I probably should have lifted. That was definitely just on me. Just driver error. I’m going for it here. The #88 is driving away from us and I felt like I needed to make a move as fast as possible on the #11. Destroyed a lot of race cars, so it’s just really unfortunate.”

Watch: Hill shares his point-of-view of McDowell contact: ‘Definitely on me’

Thankfully, all drivers were checked and released from the infield care center.

“It just felt like he [Hill] kept trying to move me there and I can see here, he was never going to get alongside,” said McDowell. “I was all the way out. He wasn’t even alongside. Just turned me. So yeah, it’s unfortunate. I hate it for everybody at Kaulig Racing.