The race weekend at Chicagoland Speedway was full of drama. Fans dealt with awful parking traffic outside the track, Carson Hocevar got into another wreck, and Toyota took all three top spots. But the biggest story by far was the controversial crash between Shane van Gisbergen and Austin Hill.

This incident started a huge debate about payback and dirty racing. But when NASCAR finally released its weekly penalty report, the biggest surprise was what they left out. NASCAR chose to do absolutely nothing. This silence creates a confusing new standard for the sport. It leaves drivers and fans wondering where the line for crashing on purpose actually is

NASCAR lets SVG and Austin Hill walk free

FOX Sports reporter Bob Pockrass shared an update on the NASCAR penalty in an X post.

“No penalties for intentional wrecking from Chicagoland and the Hamlin and Bowman cars all good at R&D. Only penalty is two-race suspensions to two Clements pit crew members for wheel coming off.”

Denny Hamlin recently asked for more “self-policing” in NASCAR on his Actions Detrimental podcast. “Self-policing” means letting the drivers settle their own problems on the track without officials stepping in. However, even Hamlin reacted to Pockrass’s post with a confused GIF, suggesting the lack of a penalty was a bad decision.

The situation unfolded in Turn 3 on lap 47. Van Gisbergen bumped the left rear of Hill’s No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, spinning him into the outside wall. As Hill pit under caution, team owner Richard Childress called the move blatant “payback for California.” He was talking about a wreck in San Diego weeks ago, where Hill crashed Connor Zilisch and also took out van Gisbergen.

After pitting under caution at Chicagoland, Hill was irate about getting spun. Despite his crew chief pleading with him to consider the “big picture,” Hill pulled alongside SVG’s No. 97 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet and turned right to bump into him in payback.

If the NASCAR community learned anything from the Ryan Preece-Ty Gibbs debacle in Texas, it was that NASCAR would clamp down on intentional crashes. Or at least that drivers need to stay away from discussing their intentions on the team radio. For SVG, that worked in his favor, because neither did he address the crash on the radio, nor did he speak ill of Hill when the RCR driver got back at him under caution.

This silence was very confusing for fans because NASCAR’s hidden SMT telemetry data showed van Gisbergen actually drove much deeper into the corner on that specific lap than he had all race. His gas and brake traces showed he made a significant deviation from his normal driving line. But because there was no radio audio of him admitting it was payback, NASCAR seems to have let it go.

The lack of a penalty for either driver infuriated fans, who couldn’t understand why Preece was penalized at Texas if no precedent was to be set. The reactions to Pockrass’ X post went from “The Texas penalty gets more and more disgusting with each passing race,” to “Nascar nowadays is so soft. Miss the days of them ruling with an iron fist.”

NASCAR schedules meeting with SVG and Hill to avoid spillover of tensions at Atlanta

Intentional or not, SVG and Austin Hill’s clash brewed a new tension in the garage. Though the Trackhouse Racing driver had apologized to Hill and RCR post-race, NASCAR officials want to make sure the tension between them doesn’t carry over to the next race.

On the latest episode of the Hauler Talk podcast, NASCAR vice president of racing communications Mike Forde revealed the next steps in this situation.

“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. “So we plan to have that conversation on Saturday (at EchoPark Speedway, Atlanta).”

Forde also affirmed that officials had reviewed all possible data and team radio. But there was nothing concrete enough to label the crash “100% intentional and penalty-worthy.” In Ryan Preece’s case, it was the presence of a loaded team radio message before he wrecked Ty Gibbs that found him guilty.

Calling angry drivers into the hauler is a classic NASCAR move. In the past, officials used mandatory meetings to stop intense rivalries before they got worse, as they did with Brad Keselowski and Denny Hamlin, or Tony Stewart and Brian Scott.

Saturday’s meeting in Atlanta will be crucial for SVG, at least, because he is in contention for the playoffs. Any kind of payback from Hill in the remainder of the regular season could bump him out of the Top 16 and Chase contention.