Ross Chastain explains how to defend move made by Denny Hamlin on Kyle Larson

While Ross Chastain battled for a P13 result in last Sunday’s HighPoint.com 400 at Pocono Raceway, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson duked it out for the win.

Hamlin, who earned his 50th NASCAR Cup Series victory, made his move with seven laps remaining, executing a pass of Larson to take the lead. Hamlin appeared to make contact with Larson, who fell back into the pack and finished 20th. The controversial move resulted in Hamlin and Larson engaging in a war of words throughout the week, and has seen many of the sport’s best giving their take on the situation.

Ahead of Sunday’s Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway, Chastain had his number called by the media to comment on the matter. Asked if there was a way for Larson to defend the move, Chastain said there’s always something that can be done.

Chase Elliott, William Byron, Ryan Blaney and Ross Chastain on the nature of the Pocono finish and how they view such a move: pic.twitter.com/p9iF1vWDew

— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) July 30, 2023

“Didn’t change anything for me last week, so I can’t really say,” Chastain said, via Bob Pockrass of Fox Sports. “Going forward, we all make our decisions lap-by-lap. Yeah, every time we go into a corner, there’s decisions that we make and there’s choices. Just gotta know who you’re racing against and what the odds are. If it still happens and the odds are low, then OK, you lost that one. But yeah, there’s something you can do every corner of every lap of every race.”

Denny Hamlin issues some hard truth on Kyle Larson incident: ‘he got the losing end of a racing deal’

Making an appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Wednesday, Hamlin addressed the on-track incident in detail, saying Larson came out on the “losing end of a racing deal.”

“You know, I understand when you’re a fan of someone else, that is your allegiance and it doesn’t matter what happens to them — you’re going to, you know, if things don’t go your way, there’s blame to be placed somewhere,” Hamlin said. “It doesn’t reside with your fandom to one given person or manufacturer or whatever it is. I get all that, but I also — people need to understand too that like I get it in the sense that I don’t expect Kyle Larson to get out and be happy with it, right?

“There was a winner, and there was a loser. And he got the losing end of a racing deal.”