“Desperate people do desperate things.” That’s how Joey Logano summed up the chaos at Charlotte Motor Speedway’s Roval, where he clinched his Round of 8 spot by a razor-thin 0.167 seconds over Ross Chastain, who battled hard through the first two stages, nabbing top-five finishes to stay in the hunt against Logano. But Stage 3 turned into a nightmare of self-inflicted wounds, starting with a pit road speeding penalty that erased +2 precious points. As the laps wound down, the pressure mounted, setting the stage for a finish no one saw coming.

The final lap antic by Chastain, where his aggressive dive into the frontstretch chicane wrecked Denny Hamlin and sent both spinning backward across the finish line, made the garage abuzz with debates over NASCAR penalizing rules. And two veteran New York analysts are here to throw their opinions into the matter. Should NASCAR have penalized Chastain? So let’s hear their perspectives on the incident.

Analysts debate penalty for Ross Chastain’s bold final-lap contact

In the heat of the playoffs, Ross Chastain made an aggressive move that analysts Jordan Bianchi and Jeff Gluck dissected on their podcast “The Teardown.” Bianchi argued strongly for intervention, saying, “I’m not considering defending, like, Chastain cleaning out Hamlin. There is no excuse for that. And that should be policed,” drawing parallels to past incidents like Austin Dillon’s Richmond wreck last year that drew heavy scrutiny from NASCAR for integrity reasons.

This last-lap antic, where Chastain jumped the curb to try reclaiming the spot Hamlin had just taken in Turn 7, stemmed from Chastain’s earlier errors, like speeding on pit road with 20 laps left, dropping him from eighth to 24th and costing crucial points over Logano. To which Chastain said, “I single-handedly took a car out of the round of 8.”

Background shows Chastain had already blown a pit exit earlier, swinging wide and halting to avoid a wall, which plummeted him from fifth to 30th after Stage 1, highlighting a day of unforced mistakes that amplified his desperation.

Gluck echoed the call for a penalty, noting, “I do think it would have been a penalty, ultimately,” while acknowledging Chastain’s low-risk mindset in a must-advance scenario, especially given his past tensions with Hamlin. Bianchi reinforced this by referencing Martinsville’s wall-ride controversy from 2022, where Chastain’s innovative but risky move advanced him to the Championship 4, but now NASCAR’s stricter policing of aggressive driving, seen in Dillon‘s case, where he was docked points and fined, suggests they wouldn’t hesitate.

“There has to be a line in the sand, and I’m not saying I think they would have; I really do think they would have… We can’t just have somebody just cleaning somebody out at the right, wrong, or different time. I think they would have,” Bianchi emphasized, pointing to how such unchecked moves erode the sport’s fairness, especially in formats that reward bold plays but demand lines in the sand.

Chastain himself reflected post-race, “I’d restart the whole day… Just unforced errors. Just terrible. So it’s heartbreaking for almost 200 employees at Trackhouse,” taking ownership for elevating his team from mid-pack speed to top-five contention only to unravel it single-handedly.

The analysts didn’t fault Chastain’s intent. “Now, I also don’t fault Ross Chastain at all, because if you’re Ross Chastain and you’re saying, ‘Okay, I need one more lap, or one more position here, right? Okay… The negative is you might get penalized for it,” Gluck said, understanding the playoffs’ moral gray areas, but insisted NASCAR‘s evolution demands accountability to prevent repeats.

Chastain, whose 2022 runner-up finish and wins at COTA and Talladega built his “Watermelon Man” reputation, this elimination echoes 2023’s Round of 12 exit, underscoring Trackhouse‘s growth to playoff contenders, yet hampered by those pivotal lapses under pressure.

With the spin’s fallout lingering, eyes turn to Denny Hamlin’s part in it all. What if he’d eased up?

Denny Hamlin’s final-lap choice

Denny Hamlin‘s pass on Ross Chastain in Turn 7 ignited questions about playoff sportsmanship, as easing off might have let Chastain snag the point to oust Joey Logano. Hamlin, chasing his first title, prioritized position without knowing the stakes, a call rooted in his 2025 season of three wins but playoff pressures. The move, clean yet pivotal, echoed past rivalries like his 2022 dust-ups with Chastain, but here stemmed from blind racing amid spread-out cars.

One view frames it as a strategy: “While some would have argued that might have been race manipulation, is that really the case? Hamlin has no allegiance or attachment to either team; he would have simply been choosing which driver he wanted to go against in Round 3.” This highlights Hamlin’s neutral stance, with Logano and Chastain posting similar stats, one win each, close top-10 counts, choosing between facing a proven closer like Logano, who has three titles since 2018.

Hamlin later reflected that he didn’t know the points situation and appeared to be animated on pit road after the race while speaking to crew chief Chris Gayle. It looks like Hamlin said, “I would have not passed him,” according to this X post video.

His radio silence left him unaware, a repeat from Kansas, where aggression cost spots, underscoring how better intel might flip outcomes without penalties, as NASCAR saw no foul play here.