Whenever NASCAR arrives in Austin for the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix, it never disappoints. Whether it was the rain-soaked inaugural race in 2021, which had everything from thrilling moves to fiery crashes, or the race in 2022, which saw Ross Chastain give Trackhouse Racing their first-ever win. The tight turns and crazy elevation changes of the Circuit of The Americas are a challenge that guarantees thrilling races. However, the rework to the track for 2025 brought in a new level of difficulty.

The new COTA was reduced from 3.4 to 2.4 miles, cutting out turns 7 to 11 and creating a hard cut from the new 6a to 6b. This made the racing way more exciting and led to a thrilling finale with Kyle Busch and Christopher Bell battling it out for the win. However, for Ross Chastain, a track where he had finished in the top 10 every race so far turned into a nightmare on Turn 1.

Ross Chastain admits to high-risk, no reward move on Chase Elliott

Ross Chastain, the driver for the No. 1 Chevrolet for Trackhouse racing, is not a driver who is known to back down and admit his mistake. But after darting down the inside of Chase Elliott, spinning and leaving him facing the wrong way, all in Turn 1, Lap 1, Chastain had no choice but to admit his error. In an attempt to take control of the inside line, Chastain ended up collecting his teammate and Cup Series debutant Connor Zilisch as well.

“Yeah, it was an error. When I went inside the five, I thought we were slow enough from the restart zone and that was not the case. So… I get to live with that. Yeah, from the outside. It doesn’t look good, and… it was an error; it was a big error to go to the bottom of five. That was not necessary… With risk, there’s always reward. That move was a bad move.” Ross Chastain told Bob Pockrass at Phoenix after declining to comment after the race last week.

Chastain admitted his wrongdoing, and speaking of risk and reward, who knows that better than Chastain? Everyone remembers the infamous ‘Hail Melon’ at Martinsville in 2022 when Ross Chastain took a hue risk and rode the wall on the final lap to break a track record and edge Denny Hamlin out of the Championship 4. However, at COTA, the only thing he edged out were his chances of a good finish.

Meanwhile, Chase Elliott, a road course maestro, was looking to conquer the shortened track to add to his seven road course triumphs. However, Chastain’s move left him severely damaged and sent him to the back of the grid on the restart. Despite all that, Elliott managed a sublime drive with an excellent pitting strategy to finish up in 4th place.

Speaking on the Turn 1, Lap 1 incident, Elliott said, “You know, I hate [that] it happened…It’s easy for me to say that I wish it wasn’t on the first lap, which is true, but if that happens at any point in the race, you’re probably going to be bummed out about it,” a frustrated Chase Elliott said when asked of the incident with Chastain.

Chastain could only manage a 12th-place finish in the race. His lowest finishes at the Circuit of The Americas. He even let Chase Elliott pass him by at one point, possibly fearing retaliation from the #9 as his crew chief, Alan Gustaffson, was heard saying, “When we get a chance to send him, we’re sending that 1 [Chastain] car.”

This incident has sparked a controversy among the NASCAR community, with legends like Kevin Harvick and Dale Earnhardt Jr. criticizing Chastain’s move during the race. Harvick deemed the move to be “the worst [move] of the race,” while Dale Earnhardt Jr. criticized Chastain’s decision to decline to comment on the incident after the race.

Dale Jr. said on an episode of the Dale Jr. Download, “I think you got to comment, there’s no harm in it. I mean, I guess you could say, ‘That man I messed up; I went down in the corner and my shallow entry; was off line and dirt track down there on the inside, and he made a mistake; lap 1, I should know better,’ he [Chastain] could’ve said all that, he could’ve said anything, and that would’ve been better than a no comment,” suggesting that admitting his fault early on would have been better than silence.

While these legends of the sport have criticized the aggressive move from Chastain, it does raise a rather important question. Is aggressive driving good or bad for NASCAR?

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Dale Jr. comments on aggressive driving

Ross Chastain’s move was by no means endangering Chase Elliott. However, it was aggressive, and it was uncalled for that early in the race. The irony of the whole situation is that just the previous week at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Chastain was in a heated discussion with his mentee, Carson Hocevar, for the latter’s aggressive moves on the track. Hocevar’s moves were also not appreciated by Ryan Blaney, who was bumped during a turn, which sent his car spinning, leading to an expletive-laden rant from Blaney on his radio.

There was a line of people waiting to talk to Hocevar after the race as he angered a lot of drivers while notching up his first podium finish (P2) in his Cup career. However, Dale Jr. had a contrasting opinion to Hocevar’s antics. “The sport needs personalities. It needs things that stand out. It needs drivers that go against the norms… I think he actually is a good person. Now, when he drives a race car, he may get a little punky, a little bratty, a little, you know—but so does Logano and some other people.”

Junior does make a solid point here. Hocevar, a sophomore driver for Spire Motorsports, feels like a breath of fresh air in the Cup Series. What were his comments after the race on his aggressive driving? “We’re here to win races, not be a boy band and love each other and play on the playground together,” Hocevar said after the race, unapologetic and oozing confidence.

Going back to the point Dale Jr. made at the end there about Joey Logano, he isn’t wrong there, either. Logano notoriously wrecked Matt Kenseth out of the championship race in 2015 at Kansas, despite already having his seat in the Championship 4 locked in. Logano won the race, but Kenseth did not let him forget his actions. In Martinsville, Kenseth wrecked Logano’s car, which led Logano, who was on a three-race win streak, to change his car ahead of the finale, which he eventually lost to Kyle Busch.

The moral of this story is that aggressive driving comes at a cost. Now, Hocevar did not pull out any of the antics that Logano and Kenseth did, but his passion to win does trump his concern for other drivers’ safety at times. This is what makes him one to watch on the Cup Series grid. So what do you think? Is aggressive driving coming back to the Cup Series grid, or will things tone down as the season goes along? Let us know in the comments!