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Dale Earnhardt Jr Reveals How the Chase Elliott-Kyle Larson Incident Was Different from Denny Hamlin’s Pocono Wreck of Ross Chastain

Published 08/26/2022, 11:55 AM EDT

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Following the NASCAR Cup race at Watkins Glen, Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson were not exactly seeing eye-to-eye. This was because the duo were battling for the lead when they clashed.

Larson emerged better off, while poor old Elliott could only settle for a disappointing fourth place.

Recently, Dale Earnhardt Jr spoke about the incident and compared it to the Denny Hamlin-Ross Chastain feud.

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He said, “I think that once he got the tire unlocked, he made the corner, the best he could. Without giving up any momentum, and he also gave Chase enough room on the outside of him to do some work.”

“He didn’t make Chase have to lift to miss the fence, like maybe a Denny and Ross. Chase did have to run wide, way wider than he probably wanted to run. But he did have room out there to operate.”

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What else did Dale Earnhardt Jr. say about the incident?

In his mind though, this was nothing more than a racing incident. As per his justification, it was getting to the end of the race and both drivers were racing each other hard.

To further back up his point, it was also the last restart, but the bottom line was that both of them were teammates. Earnhardt Jr insisted that there is a level of responsibility for a driver to avoid wrecking his own teammate.

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USA Today via Reuters

On the other end of the scale, teammate or no teammate, everyone is racing for the win. Additionally, there is Larson’s own team, pit crew, sponsors, and a whole army of people, egging him on for the win.

They all expect him to forget ‘taking care’ or his teammate and just gun it for the win. If this was at the expense of Elliott, so be it, because both of them are great drivers in great cars.

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WATCH THIS STORY: From Kyle Larson to Denny Hamlin : Chase Elliott’s Most Heated Moments (essentiallysports.com)

Now, neither driver can really do anything about what has transpired. Instead, they simply have to move on and focus on the next race at Daytona, or Bristol, in the case of Chase Elliott.

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Written by:

Dhruv George

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Dhruv George is a senior Motorsports author for EssentiallySports, having authored nearly 12000 articles spanning different sports like F1, NASCAR, Tennis, NFL, and eSports. He graduated with a PG Diploma in Journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications. Dhruv has also conducted interviews with F1 driver Pierre Gasly and Moto2 rider Tony Arbolino.
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Edited by:

Ranvijay Singh