Hauler Talk: NASCAR will meet with SVG, Hill after no penalty arose from Chicagoland

NASCAR reviewed data from every lap that Shane van Gisbergen and Austin Hill were on track before deciding neither driver would be penalized for their Chicagoland Speedway incident.

During the latest episode of the “Hauler Talk” podcast, NASCAR vice president of racing communications Mike Forde said officials would still meet with van Gisbergen and Hill this weekend at EchoPark Speedway.

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On the 48th lap of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race in Joliet, Illinois, Hill’s No. 33 Chevrolet crashed in Turn 4 after being hit from behind by van Gisbergen’s No. 97 while battling for 28th.

RELATED: Chicagoland penalty report | Hill crashes after contact from SVG

“We want to have a discussion and make sure that it doesn’t boil over into a significant problem at Atlanta or beyond,” Forde said, adding there was no penalty to Hill for hitting van Gisbergen’s car under caution. “So we plan to have that conversation on Saturday.”

Forde said NASCAR competition strategist Scott Miller began studying throttle, steering and braking data at the Remote Race Control center immediately after the incident and then reviewed the entire race Monday.

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“We looked to see if there were any anomalies throughout the race and something that spurred this that maybe was payback from earlier,” Forde said. “We went through all the radio transmissions to see if there was anything that rose to kind of a smoking gun. Camera angles and all available resources, as we always say. And nothing in our eyes proved definitively this was 100% intentional and penalty-worthy.”

NASCAR has previously penalized drivers who admitted to intentionally causing a crash, but van Gisbergen radioed his team that it was an accident.

Forde said NASCAR doesn’t necessarily need an admission of guilt to penalize a driver, but that made the difference in past penalties to Ryan Preece and Denny Hamlin.

“There’s enough reasonable doubt to where it didn’t rise to the penalty for us here,” Forde said. “If you remove that reasonable doubt, then you’re going to get a penalty. If you say you’re going to do it and then do it, that is going to rise to the level of a penalty.”

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NASCAR will also meet with Zane Smith and Carson Hocevar on Saturday after their incident at Chicagoland.

“The same review went into it, and nothing rose to the level of there being no doubt it was intentional, so we are opting to not penalize there,” Forde said. “But we’ll be having a conversation in the hauler between those two drivers, too. So it’ll be a busy hauler.”

Other topics covered by Forde and senior director of racing communications Amanda Ellis during the 61st episode of “Hauler Talk,” which explores competition issues in NASCAR:

— Why Ryan Preece was towed to the garage instead of the pit lane after his early incident at Chicagoland Speedway.

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— How many teams were running lifts that help with flat tires.

— The process of bringing Kyle Larson’s No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet back to pit lane after being stuck in the frontstretch grass.

— What caused the damage to Tyler Reddick’s No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota.

— The reason a pothole appeared in the pits and how it was fixed.

— The resolution on the positioning of Preece’s headrest for Sunday’s race.

Click on the embed below to listen or search for “Hauler Talk” wherever you download podcasts to hear it on your phone, tablet or mobile device.

Nate Ryan has written about NASCAR since 1996 while working at the San Bernardino Sun, Richmond Times-Dispatch, USA Today Co. and, for the past 10 years, at NBC Sports Digital. He is a contributor to the “Hauler Talk” show on the NASCAR Podcast Network. He has also covered various other motorsports, including the IndyCar and IMSA series.