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In Sunday’s inaugural race at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, Chastain wrecked Denny Hamlin and spun out Chase Elliott in separate incidents.
Both Hamlin and Elliott made efforts at retaliation in the laps that followed, with Hamlin repeatedly crowding or blocking Chastain. Elliott made contact with Chastain’s car at one point.
Other than offering repeated warnings to the team – particularly Hamlin’s – NASCAR officials took no action on the incidents during the race.
In an interview Tuesday on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Scott Miller, NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition, said the sanctioning body may leave it in the drivers’ hands but continue to monitor and further developments.
“I mean, certainly we don’t like to see things like that, but … we kind of have to let them handle it on their own somewhat,” Miller said. “And what we saw, while we were annoyed by it, there was no real contact. Neither one.
“I mean, they tried to make life miserable for Ross, we all witnessed that. But at least we didn’t see a blatant take-out or anything like that. And it was obvious from Ross’ post-race comments that he’s made some mistakes out there and wants to make it right, but it’s kind of up to those guys to sort it out and how it moves forward from there.”
Chastain owned up to his mistakes on the track in an interview following the race.
“I owe half of the field an apology. Words aren’t going to fix it, so I’ll have to pay for it on the track,” he said. “I almost did today and I deserve everything that they do.”
However, several drivers on the track during the race seemed irritated NASCAR did not try to prevent retaliation from Hamlin and Elliott that could have inadvertently collected other participants.
In comments after the race and later on social media, Hamlin indicated he would likely pick another time to retaliate against Chastain on the track.
Miller said NASCAR would continue to monitor the issue but had yet to speak to any of the drivers involved.
“May have them in the trailer face to face to talk about it as we’ve done before,” he said. “We’ll discuss that situation further and decide how we’re going to move forward with it.
“We haven’t spoken to any of the parties. It’s usually better to kind of let things die down and speak to him before we hit the track again, rather than do it at the race track.
“We’ll do that if absolutely necessary, but in this situation where there was no sort of blatant take-out in retaliation, best to kind of let that calm down a bit, and then have a word with him later.”
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