“F1 elitists would be punching,” "Better without Larson": NASCAR fans react to 3-way battle between Shane van Gisbergen, Kyle Larson, and Austin Hill

NASCAR fanbase has mocked the apparent reduction in competition in F1 as they outlined the final lap battle between Shane van Gisbergen, Kyle Larson, and Austin Hill.

The Xfinity Series Focused Health 250 race got done and dusted, with the Hendrick Motorsports driver sealing the win after charging back from the P7 spot during the overtime. With a fresher set of tires, Larson swooped past van Gisbergen and Hill as both of them went slightly off track during the final moments of the 46-lap race at COTA.

By converting his pole position into a race win, the Californian has raked in two victories this season, Focused Health 250 and the Cup Series Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

However, it was the three-way final-lap battle between Shane van Gisbergen, Austin Hill, and Kyle Larson, that caught the fans' attention, following which, they put forth their opinions.

"One fan said that Formula 1 "elitists" would love the three-way battle between Van Gisbergen, Hill and Larson.

"F1 elitists would be punching the air watching this"

Few fans called out the track limits of NASCAR because of which Shane van Gisbergen suffered a fatal blow to his race outcome, adding:

"The level of consistency in officiating the so-called “track limits” is frankly pathetic."

Some fans believed that a Cup Series driver shouldn't be competing at Xfinity races, let alone win, referring to Kyle Larson, with one stating:

"Nobody cares about Cup drivers winning in a competition he isn't even fighting for the title."

Austin Hill vents his frustration upon Shane van Gisbergen's final lap wreck

With only a few corners left to tame until the checkered flag dropped, Hill and SVG were in a neck-to-neck battle for the win, when Larson started closing in on the duo. However, after a miscalculated maneuver by the New Zealander sent him and Hill off the track, it paved the way for the HMS driver's maiden Xfinity Series victory of the season.

Larson was followed by Shane van Gisbergen in P2 and Hill in P3, but the #97 driver was slapped with a 30-second time penalty for going off the track limits and saw his position plummet to P27, whereas John Hunter Nemechek, who sealed P4, got promoted to a podium finish in P3.

The odds were favoring Hill, but SVG's wreck slashed all the hopes, following which the #21 Chevrolet driver blamed the rival during his post-race interview (via X):

"He lifted super early. I'm not real sure why he lift this early and started wheel-hopping. Once I got into the back of him into [Turn] 1 and then we cleared him."

He added:

"Thought I was doing right...ultimately you know just got ran over it, knocked his nose in so kind of shows how hard he ran into me."