Of late, the drivers in the Cup Series have been quite critical about the ones racing in the lower divisions of NASCAR, especially the Truck Series. Why? Because they believe the Truck racers of today do not have the discipline or even the respect to race clean against their competitors. Well, in the last couple of races, racing clean is something that the Cup racers have also failed to do and Chase Elliott is having none of it.

The first two Cup Series races have made for exciting viewing but the common theme in both of them has been the crashes. The Daytona 500 finished under caution as overzealous drivers wrecked each other on the final lap and in Atlanta, it only took a single lap for the carnage to begin. The race might have had a memorable ending but the beginning left a lot of fans and drivers disappointed.

Lap 2 crash in Atlanta ruined the homecoming of Chase Elliott

Chase Elliott was one of those drivers. After the misery that was 2023, the Hendrick Motorsports star would have been looking for a strong showing at what he considers his home track. But his concentration was disrupted after the very first lap when a wreck collected several cars. The driver of the #9 did eventually recover from it and finished a decent P15, but at the time, he was not a happy man.

In a video released by NASCAR on its official X handle, the Hendrick Motorsports star was heard expressing his disappointment with the situation. As his spotter was trying to guide him through the mess, an irate Chase Elliott slammed his fellow Cup Series drivers. “What are we doing on the first f****** lap of this thing?” he asked on the team radio.

Motor racing is incomplete without crashes and wrecks, especially NASCAR where the racing is intense and in close quarters everywhere on the track. But the past two race weekends have seen a lot of incidents on the track in the Cup Series, so much that it can even rival everything that was criticized about the Truck Series.

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So perhaps there’s not a lot of difference between the Cup and drivers in lower divisions in terms of racing IQ? Former Cup Series racer Kenny Wallace certainly believes so and in a recent episode of The Kenny Wallace Show, the motorsports veteran, along with his brother Mike, made their opinions quite clear.

NASCAR veteran rubbishes notion that Cup drivers are smarter than the rest

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Former Daytona and Talladega winner Mike Wallace had just finished narrating a story about how NASCAR had outlawed driver-to-driver communication during a race. For a short while, drivers could communicate with one another if they needed a push during a race.

However, the organizers outlawed this and as per Wallace, it was because they thought it would be a dangerous practice for racers in the lower divisions of the sport. And his brother Kenny Wallace was having none of it. “Now the experience level might be there but to think Cup drivers are smarter than say Austin Hill or some of those…now experience I get it but everybody wrecks. And the Cup guys prove it all the time,” the 60-year-old quipped.

Clean racing is tough in a sport like stock car racing. When you’re running at high speeds around ovals with 10 other cars around you, it’s more likely that you will crash than not. And it’s important to remember that these guys are race car drivers who do not want to give their rivals an inch. So is it really a surprise that we get so many wrecks?

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