Chase Elliott reacts to end of COTA racing, seemingly subtweets Ross Chastain

Chase Elliott loved what he saw at the end of the COTA race, despite not getting the win. While speaking to reporters after Sunday’s race, Elliott reacted to the three-car battle to determine the winner of the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix.

“That right there is a great example of three very respectful, talented race car drivers duking it out for a win without crashing each other,” Elliott said, per Frontstretch. “It was awesome to watch.”

Elliott and the rest of the NASCAR world got to see Christopher Bell earn the victory at COTA. It looked like Elliott had a chance to earn his first win of the year since he started third. But after an incident with Ross Chastain early in the race, Elliott had to battle throughout the day to earn a P4 finish.

“I just wish we could put together a clean day,” Elliott said. “It just sucks to fall behind that early, thought we had a great NAPA Chevy yesterday. I would have just liked to have seen how we would have stacked up to those guys today. That’s all. Just bummed that you get behind and have damage and got to to fix it and never drives like it did yesterday.

Chase Elliott hated that he ‘had to recover’

“It’s just like, man, I would have just loved a shot at it without having to try to piece it back together with the toe and all that stuff, but a great recovery for sure. I just hate that we had to recover. That’s the part that sucks.

The incident with Chase Elliott and Ross Chastain happened during Turn 1, where Chastain got aggressive and dive-bombed Elliott, who went spinning. “You didn’t do anything wrong,” Elliott’s crew chief Alan Gustafson said over the radio during the race. “It’s just stupidity but you know, we’re gonna have to pay that shit back, because I’m over people like that constantly doing dumb shit. When we get a chance to send him, we’re sending that 1 car.”

“No, that’s totally fine. I’ll do what I need to do,” Elliott responded. “But I just need to make sure I wasn’t in the wrong before I do it.”

The COTA race was Elliott’s first top-five finish of the year and third in the last six races, dating back to last year.