Denny Hamlin Corners Ross Chastain For Wrecking ‘Hometown Boy’ Chase Elliott

This weekend at the Atlanta Motor Speedway delivered so much action that many drivers’s negative opinions about the new superspeedway layout were buried rather immediately. However, this certainly wasn’t the case for Chase Elliott, who perhaps isn’t too pleased with falling victim to the ‘Accordion Effect‘. Elliott was at the wrong place at the wrong time, catching himself right in the middle of the Lucky Dog battle between Ross Chastain and Bubba Wallace.

While the hometown crowd was eager to see the 2020 Cup Series champion repeat his win at Atlanta from two years ago, it all came crashing down owing to the incident with Chastain. Last season, Chastain had received a call from Rick Hendrick for wrecking too many of his cars. But this time around, it looks like Denny Hamlin has stepped in instead!

Denny Hamlin exposes Ross Chastain’s hand in Chase Elliott’s unfortunate exit from the top 10 at Atlanta

It all began to unfold during stage 3, as Ross Chastain was in a heated battle with Bubba Wallace for the Lucky Dog spot. Soon enough, Elliott and the rest of the top 10 arrive on the scene, hoping to get around the pair and other lapped cars without any mishaps. Unfortunately, this is when things got uncomfortable for Elliott, who received a few taps from Chastain as he tried to check up in reaction to the cars in front.

During one such incident, Elliott checked up but Chastain didn’t, resulting in the tap that sent Elliott and the #9 Chevy spinning into oblivion. While Elliott managed to recover to a 15th-place finish in the Hooter Camaro ZL1, Denny Hamlin felt Ross Chastain had some explaining to do. Dissecting the incident on the Actions Detrimental podcast’s latest episode, Hamlin and his crew went back and forth about whether Chastain was to truly blame.

When one of the co-hosts expressed that Elliott may have lifted too much, Hamlin was having none of it; “What, Chase wrecked himself from behind? Really? It’s inconclusive?” To paint a better picture, Hamlin shared, “Well, if you were to run into the back of me on Catawba Avenue, Jared, who would get the ticket?” Immediately, Jared retorted, “That’s not a good argument.” Yet Hamlin was hellbent on proving his point.

He added, “I’m saying that Chase is racing and Ross is jammed up his rear end, and so Chase, he’s got to make moves depending on what’s going on in front of him. If he’s got people checking up, well if you don’t give the guy in front of you room entering the corner…In that part of the pack, very little of the field is actually running wide open.”

With that said, Hamlin also explained how Atlanta was a track that still required drivers to lift to a certain degree to make the corner, meaning drivers had to be extra cautious about the ‘Accordion Effect’. Hamlin concluded by explaining, “Everyone is lifting a little bit entering the corner, so you’ve always gotta give your competitor a little room for error there. Because we’re not at a track like Daytona or Talladega where everyone is just stuck and you can enter right on their rear bumper, so.” 

READ MORE: Revived Atlanta Motor Speedway Refuted Cup Drivers’ Protest With One of the Closest Finishes in NASCAR History

While Hamlin pulled no punches against Chastain’s lack of situational awareness, the 23XI co-owner had nothing but praise for the top finishes of the day, who ultimately gave NASCAR one of its most enticing finishes in recent memory.

Despite suffering from a trifecta of wrecks, Denny Hamlin was all praises for the end of the Ambetter Health 400

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It’s no secret that the Ambetter Health 400 had its fair share of mishaps and incidents that the drivers would much rather forget. But what no one will forget soon is the three-wide photo finish which not only broke records but also showed new fans a glimpse of the sport’s finest moments. With only a few turns to go, it looked like Ryan Blaney would take his Ford Mustang Darkhorse to victory lane and bring in a good win after last week’s drama.

But that would all change as Kyle Busch and Daniel Suarez created a gap between the leader and the pack to get the jump on Blaney. With Busch gunning down the middle and Suarez sticking to the outside wall, the entire podium went three wide into the last corner to come home with only 0.007 separating them. Not only was this a monumental finish for the Atlanta Motor Speedway, but it was also glorious enough to sideline Denny Hamlin’s misfortunes from his three altercations.

Reflecting on the incident, Hamlin shared his view of the moves made by Busch and Suarez as they tussled with Blaney. Hamlin stated, “He’s (Blaney’s) probably thinking that he’s got such a run that he’s probably gonna clear the #99 (Suarez) who at the time still didn’t have a huge run coming. But the #8 (Busch) made a bold move. I thought it was a great move, and we just had one of those great finishes.”

And that’s not all, Hamlin was equally impressed with the way the three drivers had kept it clean all the way to the checkered flag. He added, “We’ve gotta give credit to the three drivers because none of them wiped each other out. They hardly even touched. Like, great job Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney, and Daniel Suarez, just racing it out. It just made for such a great and fantastic finish and hopefully, this gives some well-needed momentum for NASCAR to start their 2024 season.” 

READ MORE: 2024 Ambetter 400: Daniel Suarez Locks in Career Second Playoff Spot at Atlanta as Kyle Busch Goes Winless Again

With that said, it’s safe to say the Ambetter Health 400 threw so many curveballs that even Denny Hamlin was split on the whole ordeal.