Ross Chastain didn’t do himself any favors with his opening-lap move Sunday at Circuit of the Americas.
A bonsai move to the inside left him nowhere to go in trying to make the turn — except into the back of Chase Elliott.
At least that’s what it appears.
Chastain didn’t say anything on his radio except that he got into the back of Elliott. And according to The Athletic, he declined to talk about what happened right after the race.
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Elliott wanted to make sure he didn’t do anything wrong before speaking out.
“I don’t want to comment yet, but it’s the first lap of the dang race,” Elliott said.
That is the frustrating part when seeing Chastain’s move. It was the first lap, and for a driver with 225 previous starts, it would seem like he should have known better, since there was no way he was going to be able to make the turn from the position he was in.
“This was definitely the worst move of the race,” said former driver and analyst Kevin Harvick on his “Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour NASCAR on FOX” podcast.
“Ross being overzealous at that particular point just tore up a bunch of race cars.”
There could be a good reason why Chastain was in that position, but so far we haven’t heard it yet.
Chastain can’t afford to make these kinds of apparent mistakes for two reasons:
— This is a sport of give-and-take, and if he wants a little grace in certain situations, he can’t have blemishes be a part of his reputation again. During his first couple of seasons at Trackhouse, he had a reputation for picking bad times to make aggressive moves.
— He is a mentor to young drivers, including Carson Hocevar. It’s hard to be a mentor if the driver is making moves that he’d discourage others from making.
Mistake or not, Chastain’s reputation took a hit Sunday at Circuit of the Americas.
However, it won’t haunt him forever. He can come back from that. Whether it is as smooth as Chase Elliott’s rally Sunday to finish fourth Sunday remains to be seen.
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
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