Looking at the replays of the incident between Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson, one can perfectly make out that Larson did not intentionally try to hit his teammate while exiting the pits. However, Elliott ramming into Larson was pretty deliberate. None of that would have been an issue if Elliott could have just taken a minute to think of what could actually have happened in that situation.
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However, there was something that Elliott did later on that seemingly frustrated Bubba Wallace’s spotter, Freddie Kraft. While speaking on the Door Bumper Clear podcast, Wallace’s spotter spoke his mind, calling out Elliott’s dishonest response to the media regarding the Larson altercation.
Bubba Wallace insider shares his thoughts on Chase Elliott’s media response
Discussing the incident on the podcast, Freddie Kraft mentioned, “The only thing that I did not like about this whole situation was… I don’t know if this is Chase Elliott, or this is the NASCAR police not letting these guys speak their minds.”
Kraft mentioned that during an interview with Bob Pockrass after the race, Elliott was asked about the incident leaving the pit road and whether it was a message to Larson. According to Kraft, Elliott apparently said something along the lines of, ‘Why, what do you mean? I didn’t what? There was no message. I didn’t do anything…”
“Listen, this is so patronizing to our fans… They’re not stupid. Like you swerved, you actually ran into him. You hung a hard left swerved into him… I get it you probably can’t say what you really want to say there because it’s like you can’t just act like nothing happened.”
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Kraft was visibly upset, saying, “It’s just I hate this for our fans that like they get treated at times like they’re idiots… You got to have a better answer than, ‘What? What do you mean? what? I didn’t do anything? Nothing. No. I just, I wasn’t sending any messages there. Yes you were, yes you were. Stop!”
What did Elliott say about his altercation with Kyle Larson?
Following the race, NASCAR journalist Bob Pockrass asked Elliott if he had been trying to send Larson a message after deliberately hitting him on the pit exit. Elliott responded, “Oh there was no message.”
Pockrass asked once more, if he didn’t have a problem with his teammate accidentally tapping his car earlier. But the 2020 Cup Series champion said, “No. No. Yeah.”
It could have been that Elliott decided not to speak his mind considering NASCAR and their rules, as Freddie Kraft said earlier. But in any case, his complete denial that anything happened was hilarious to watch considering literally everyone saw him retaliate on camera.