"Either crash or give space": Chase Elliott breaks down his perspective on the Pocono crash with Justin Allgaier

Chase Elliott shed light on the late-race contact with Justin Allgaier that dropped him off the lead in the Xfinity Series race at Pocono Raceway. The Hendrick Motorsports driver shared how he was left with no choice but to back off and 'give him the space', as they would have been 'screwed' otherwise.

Allgaier began Saturday's (June 21) race at ninth, one spot above his JR Motorsports teammate, Connor Zilisch, who'd go on to win the race after capitalising on the former's incident with Elliott. With 13 laps remaining, Allgaier was on the inside of Elliott during a race restart, when he washed up over turn 1 and nearly collided with the latter's No.17 Chevy, forcing the two to back off and let the chasing pack get by.

At that point, Allgaier had led 10 laps in the race while Elliott led a race-high 38. The Cup Series driver managed to regain his momentum and finished inside teh top-5, while Allgaier slipped back to round out the top-10.

Speaking to the media post-race, Elliott broke down his run-in with Allgaier.

"It definitely changed my ending for sure. I saw him (Allgaier) rapidly approaching my door and typically at that point you either crash or give him the space to gather it up," he said via PRN.

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"It definitely changed my ending for sure. I saw him (Allgaier) rapidly approaching my door and typically at that point you either crash or give him the space to gather it up." - Chase Elliott on the incident with Allgaier on Lap 87

He further elaborated on the incident, saying,

"I think he just ran in there too hard and caught a bad section of air or something weird. It got him turned sideways and turned him towards my door really fast.....It was up to me at that point whether we were going to have two destroyed race cars. At that point, we were screwed. It's not worth tearing up this sh*t for no reason."

The result marked Justin Allgaier's 11th top-10 of the season. Notably, the JR Motorsports driver nearly crashed out during last weekend's race in Mexico, where he suffered a mechanical issue that forced him behind the wall. Nonethless, he made his way back after neccessary repairs and finished in 34th.

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Justin Allgaier talked to Chase Elliott after their incident at Pocono

After nearly taking out each other at Pocono Raceway, Justin Allgaier was spotted having an amicable conversation with Chase Elliott on pit road. The race marked Elliott's second and final Xfinity Series race of the year.

Here's a short clip of the interaction as shared by NASCAR writer Samuel Stubbs.

Reflecting on their post-race conversation, Elliott spoke to the media and said:

"I have a lot of respect for Justin. We've always raced each other with a lot of respect.... I don't have any ill will against him. I hate that he made a mistake with me there."

Despite the poor finish, Justin Allgaier's top spot on the driver's standings remain firm with 618 points, with his closest rival, Austin Hill, trailing him by 82 points.