Dale Earnhardt Jr. weighs in on Ross Chastain turning Chase Elliott, threat of retribution

Dale Earnhard Jr. took in the race at COTA this weekend and one particular run-in caught his eye. He was honed in on the wreck between Ross Chastain and Chase Elliott and the subsequent aftermath.

Chastain cleared out Elliott with a dive-bomb into the turn, infuriating the driver of the No. 9 car. Elliott and his team vowed revenge.

“The Cup race was absolutely eventful, from the drop of the green flag obviously going up into Turn 1,” Earnhardt said on the Dale Jr. Download. “Lot of action. Ross Chastain dives to the inside, cleans out the 9. Lot of other cars beating and banging through that corner, getting spun around and damaged.
“Chase talked about how that affected the handling on his car and they had to work on the left rear a little bit to try to get it improved, but it never drove quite as well as it did today before practice and qualifying. But he did work his way back up through the field and get a reasonable finish.”

That opportunity for revenge? It materialized later in the race. Not for a while, though.

All the meanwhile, Earnhardt was watching Ross Chastain and Chase Elliott on the track like a hawk. How close were they to each other?

“So that happens and I’m thinking in my mind, man, if they ever get around each other we better get a camera on there,” Earnhardt said. “Because you heard the radio comments from Alan (Gustafson), Chase’s crew chief. Basically was like, ‘Hey, given the opportunity you better take care of it.’ And Chase was like, ‘All right, that’s all I needed to know. I want to go take him out, but I didn’t want to do it unless it was definitely necessary.'”

Things didn’t play out that way, of course. When Elliott pulled closer to Ross Chastain in the final few laps of the race, Chastain just made way and allowed Elliott on by.

It was probably the safe, veteran move. Even if it didn’t make for exciting viewing.

“So I’m sitting there going, ‘All right, I guess if he gets around him he’s not just going to drive past him,'” Earnhardt said. “I figured he’d just dump him. So we get that opportunity later in the race and Ross saw the 9, or the 9 catches [Shane Van Gisbergen] and sends him up the racetrack in Turn 1 and 2 and he’s like, ‘All right, there’s Ross, Ross is right there in front of me.’

“Ross was probably getting some warnings. I’m saying laps before, they’re probably like, ‘Hey man, the 9’s back there.’ Of course. So it wasn’t like Ross looked up in the mirror and went, ‘Oh shit, I’ve got to pull it over.’ He had laps of warnings and comments to think what am I going to do? What are my options? And Ross says, coming out of Turn 1, ‘I’m going to let him go, to hell with optics, I don’t care what it looks like.’ But I’d rather finish ninth, 10th or wherever I’m going to back up to than get turned around and be backwards and finish 28th or 30th or whatever last place was on the lead lap.'”

That’s how things played out for Ross Chastain, with the driver of the No. 1 securing a P12 finish. Better than the potential alternatives.

Still, we’ll have to see what happens the next time Elliott and Chastain pull near each other on the track. Sometimes beef on the track can linger.