The Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway was a good night for Trackhouse Racing, as Daniel Suarez drove his No. 99 Chevrolet to the win. Meanwhile, his teammate, Ross Chastain, got caught up in a little incident that angered fans of hometown favorite Chase Elliott.
Elliott got a little tap from Chastain's No. 1 car, which sent him spinning. Elliott's rallied for a 15th-place finish despite all the damage he suffered during the race.
Denny Hamlin made sure to speak his mind about what happened between Chastain and Elliott — two drivers he has had plenty of run-ins with in the past — during his Feb. 26th episode of Actions Detrimental. Hamlin felt Chastain was at fault in the incident.
"Elliott got spun by Ross. Ross bumped him into Turn 3. I did see that one," Hamlin said. "Can't do that to the hometown boy."
Hamlin went on to explain that Chastain needed to be a little smarter in the situation.
"Chase is racing, and Ross is jammed up his rear-end," Hamlin said via his podcast. "Chase, he's got to make moves, depending on what's going on in front of him. If he's got people checking up. If you don't give the guy in front of your room entering the corner, like everyone — in that part of the pack, very little of the field is actually running wide open. Everyone's lifting a little bit entering the corner. So, you've always got to give your competitor a little room for error there because we're not at a track like Daytona or Talladega, where everyone's just stuck and you can enter right on their rear bumper. So, it was a stack-up. Obviously not intentional."
It didn't appear to be on purpose like Hamlin said, but it certainly only made an already tough race for Elliott harder.
Hamlin's point that drivers need to account for those ahead of them and give them some room, especially in this type of situation, is valid. Otherwise, it's just going to keep on happening.
