“Outlier” Ross Chastain breaks silence on controversy over the lap-1 Chase Elliott wreck at COTA  

No:1 Chevy driver Ross Chastain has shared his feelings about the lap one crash from COTA that ruined Chase Elliott races.

“Outlier” Ross Chastain breaks silence on controversy over the lap-1 Chase Elliott wreck at COTA  

Ross Chastain and Chase Elliott (Via IMAGO)

Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain ended some good will he has earned over a year at COTA following incident involving Chase Elliott. He was infamous for his aggressive racing style and pissing of his rivals, before Hendrick Motorsports’ Rick Hendrick stepped in give him sone strong advises. This resulted in him racing with more control and ceasing his tendency to take risk that hurt rivals.

On Sunday at Austin on the first lap of the race, Ross Chastain attempted a risky overtake by diving fast into turn one and it resulted in Chase Elliott spinning out that ruined the whole race strategy of the No:9 team. It attracted a lot of criticism from the garage as well as the racing community towards the No:1 Chevy driver. Now he has addressed the drama and took blame for the incident.

When I watched the overhead view, yeah, I’m the outlier. I’m the furthest left and I’m the fastest. So, yeah, it was an error. When I went inside the 5 [Kyle Larson], I thought we were slow enough from the restart zone and it was not the case.

Ross Chastain told Fox Sports.

Further talking about the point, he admitted that the incident doesn’t look good for him regardless of his intentions and admitted that it was big error. He added that the move he made on the bottom of Kyle Larson was unnecessary.

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So, I get to take that, I get to live with that. But yeah, from the outside it doesn’t look good. The intention was… it was an error, a big error. To go to the bottom of 5 [Larson] that was not necessary.

Ross Chastain added.

Ross Chastain admits the incident was costly

During the same conversation, Ross Chastain has confessed that if he gets a second chance, he wouldn’t have made the dive. He admitted that the risk he took at the moment didn’t earn the reward it worth and turned out to cost them more.

Ross Chastain
Ross Chastain (Via IMAGO)

So, yeah, when I watch it back I would stay behind the 5 if I could do it again. I don’t know what else to say but with any risk there is reward on the track but obviously that one cost me more than what it was worth.

Ross Chastain said.

The comments from the Chevy driver shows he regrets his decision making from Sunday and how he pissed of HMS. It would be interesting to see if the star driver will face some kind of retaliation for his actions on last Sunday in the coming races.