Upon his return to the NASCAR Xfinity Series following a one-race suspension at Watkins Glen, Austin Hill continues to alienate fans and his fellow drivers after his second controversial wreck in three races.

The driver of the No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, 31, was running third late in the Mission 200 At The Glen on Saturday, battling with Michael McDowell for second, when he hooked the rear left of the No. 11 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet, sending him straight nose-first into the barrier.

McDowell was sent spinning across the track as his car tore apart, leaving debris scattered, all the while others in the rapidly approaching queue quickly became entangled, with 16 cars ultimately becoming involved in the brutal wreck. The race wound up being won by JR Motorsports’ Connor Zilisch, after he too was involved in a wreck with teammate Shane van Gisbergen, before suffering a major injury during his post-race celebrations.

“What the heck is that guy doing? I mean, why would he do that?…I mean, he hooked me!” McDowell could be heard telling his team over the radio.

This came after Hill was recently slapped with a race ban for ‘reckless driving,’ following another late race wreck, this time at Indianapolis. There, Hill appeared to retaliate for being nudged from the rear by the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of Aric Almirola by clipping his right rear and sending him into the wall.

While Almirola felt this was a deliberate move by Hill, the RCR star continues to maintain his innocence, despite the team’s decision not to attempt to appeal the ban.

Now with Hill at the center of another major wreck, some fans are calling for NASCAR to take more serious action. “Suspend the 21 again for 2 weeks. Remove him from playoffs,” one fan suggested.

“Yes Austin Hill needs to be suspended for this one and it was intentional and for the rest of the year,” a second said. “@_AustinHill needs to be suspended FOR GOOD! Enough with this type of driving!” claimed another.

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Meanwhile, a fourth simply replied, “That’s unacceptable coming off a suspension.”

McDowell, however, was remarkably diplomatic when reflecting on the incident, brushing aside any suggestions that there was any malice involved and that Hill should face further punishment.

“There was no way he was gonna finish the pass there and he just made the decision not to lift and to turn me,” he told Frontstretch after being released from the in-field care center. “But that’s not the same as a regular hook at an oval. You know that’s not what I’m saying. So I don’t want that to be communicated. I don’t want that to be the headline.

“So yeah, you know it’s just unfortunate we had a fun race. It was going good until it wasn’t, and yeah, I’ll go back and look and see what I could have done differently, too, because there’s always two sides to it once you look through it.”

The 40-year-old even went on to describe the hit as “fun,” adding, “Yeah, it was a good one. If you’re gonna do it do it big.”

As for Hill, he ultimately took the blame for the hit, explaining, “I know the grass was coming up. We ran out of real estate. I should have just lifted, got back in line and lived to fight another corner.

“I hate it for everyone involved. That’s definitely not what I want to happened, coming back from what we got going on. That was definitely just on me. Just a driver error, I’m just going for it here. I needed to make a move as fast as possible on the No. 11.”