Kevin Harvick rips Ross Chastain for wrecking Chase Elliott, Denny Hamlin, Connor Zilisch on first lap

Kevin Harvick didn’t like what he saw from Ross Chastain on the very first lap of this past Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at COTA.

Chastain tried to make it four-wide going up the hill into Turn 1. That proved to be the wrong decision, as he slammed into Chase Elliott. Other drivers such as Denny Hamlin, Todd Gilliland and Chastain’s Trackhouse Racing teammate Connor Zilisch were caught up as well.

Harvick called it the “worst move of the race” that “tore of a bunch of racecars.”

“It’s just a bad move. And I used to have this talk with Max Papis and he comes from a different form of racing and I used to tell Max, ‘Do you really think you’re that good on Lap 0 to be able to pass that many cars and take that many chances? Do you think you’re that good or do you think everyone is just trying to protect themselves from getting their car torn up knowing that you’re gonna run over somebody trying to make these moves on Lap 0?’ I think it’s worst-case scenario for Ross,” Harvick said on his Happy Hour podcast. “He ran into the 9 [Elliott] again and those guys have obviously had a little bit of a past together.

“But this was definitely the worst move of the race. I think that Ross Chastain being overzealous at that particular point just tore up a bunch of racecars. We saw Zilisch get torn up — his teammate — Denny Hamlin got tore up. I mean, there were several other cars that had damage from that incident as well. But man, that’s a tough move on Lap 0. … If he didn’t hit the 9, he was gonna hit the next guy because he wasn’t making the corner. Those are just the moments especially on a day like that when you have a car that’s capable to run in the top five and really from that point forward, we saw him run 7th or 8th but never really ran in the top five all day.”

Ross Chastain declines comment after COTA

Elliott and crew chief Alan Gustafson weren’t happy with Chastain after the early contact and vowed to get payback. Late in the third and final stage, Elliott had his chance to retaliate. But Chastain knew it was coming and got out of Elliott’s way on purpose.

Elliott, who rebounded to finish fourth, called out Chastain after the race.

“Just a crazy day,” Elliott told Wendy Venturini of PRN. “Got run over in the first corner. I’m curious to see it, I still haven’t seen it, to know whether or not I did something wrong. Happy to own it, but it was the first corner of the first lap.”

Whereas Elliott spoke about the incident, Ross Chastain did not. He declined comment after finishing P12.