Ross Chastain spoke to the media after the Championship race at Phoenix explaining the contact between him and Chase Elliott that ended Elliott’s chances at the Championship.
Ross Chastain and Chase Elliott via NASCAR YouTube
Towards the beginning of the Final Stage with 113 laps to go, a restart saw Elliott start in the third row ahead of Ross Chastain. As the green flag dropped numerous drivers fanned out going into the dogleg.
Chastain drove his car to the bottom of the track and as Dale Earnhardt Jr. points out, “Chastain gave him no breaks there. Chastain is underneath him right here and the 9 comes across his nose and Chastain holds his ground.”
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At the end of the race, Chastain was asked about the contact between him and Elliott. He responded, “I had a really good run, looked like William didn’t get going quite as well as he wanted to and I got to the left of him and saw an erratic move he made to turn left to cover it and I was already there.”
“Look, it’s not how I want to race him or those guys and for everybody at GM I needed other Chevys up there to fight those others guys. It’s not what I wanted to do, but I feel like I had position on him and he tried to cover it late,” he explained.
When asked about the wreck following the race, Elliott punted the question instead congratulating Joey Logano on winning the race and becoming the champion.
He said, “Just want to say congratulations to Joey and his team. They did a really good job this entire weekend. He’s a very deserving champion and frankly just happy for them. Proud of my team for the effort they put in this weekend, felt like we had got our car a lot better throughout the race, and for that we should be very proud.
“It was nice to make the round. That’s a very difficult thing to do,” he continued. “Obviously, not content with that, but certainly nice to come out here and have a shot and hopefully we can come back stronger next year and give ourselves another chance and make it go our way next time.”
Elliott further elaborated in a post-race press conference, “Looking forward to the off season and really proud of our team for the fight that we put in today and felt like we had just kind of peaked right there before we crashed. And felt like we got our car driving pretty good, we just had our best pit stop of the day. So that was all really solid.”
And heck we were right there next to the 22. So, yeah, thought we had a shot at it all the way up until we didn’t. And that is unfortunately how it goes sometimes,” he added.
Chase Elliott said several times after the race that he wasn’t sure what happened in his wreck with Ross Chastain at Phoenix. “I thought we had a shot at it all the way up until we didn’t.” pic.twitter.com/K9mdKwgptm
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) November 7, 2022
Chastain also offered more comments in the post-race press conference regarding the wreck between him and Elliott.
“With the 9, I felt like I got position on him to the left side in the dogleg and he turned left,” he stated.
Ross Chastain on his day and the contact with Chase Elliott at Phoenix: “I feel like I got position on him to the left side in the dogleg and he turned left.” pic.twitter.com/fhRqXF5wox
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) November 7, 2022
Chastain finished the race in third and was the second highest finisher among the Championship 4. Joey Logano won the race while Ryan Blaney finished in second. Elliott left Phoenix with a 28th place finish.
Christopher Bell, the other driver in the Championship 4, finished the race in 10th.
Joey Logano via NASCAR Twitter
What do you make of Chastain’s explanation for the wreck with Chase Elliott? What do you make of the contact?