“You can do whatever you want”: When Chase Elliott compared flipping people off on highways vs NASCAR tracks

Back in July, 2019, when Chase Elliott wasn't crowned the Cup Series champion yet, he spoke to The Athletic and drew a lighthearted comparison between road rage on the highways and on the racetrack. The Georgia native explained how it's 'easier' to flip someone off on the highways as you won't be seeing them again, which is not the case in NASCAR.

Elliott has seen his fair share of on-track skirmishes. Even in the recently concluded Chicago Street Race, the Hendrick Motorsports driver doored Katherine Legge off turn 5, which prompted a retaliatory bump from the latter.

During an interview with The Athletic's Jeff Gluck, Elliott outlined the difference between expressing frustration on the public roads versus the racetrack.

"It’s probably very similar . The only difference is you’re never going to see that person (on the road) ever again. On the track, you’re going to see them again. Soon, probably. That makes it easier to flip somebody off on the road if you wanted to, then. You’re never going to see them again, so you can do whatever you want," he said.

Chase Elliott went on to finish 16th in the Grant Park 165 at Chicago, three spots ahead of Katherine Legge. The result had him losing to John Hunter Nemechek in Round 2 of the In-Season Challenge, who placed just one spot higher at 15th.

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Chase Elliott defends NASCAR's oval tracks over street races

Ahead of the Chicago Street Race, Chase Elliott spoke to Jeff Gluck and advocated for NASCAR's 'bread and butter' tracks like Nashville Superspeedway. He called street races like Chicago a 'great second choice', but remained steadfast in the notion that nothing can beat a 'true short track'.

"The biggest reason I'm such a big advocate of Nashville is because, to me, oval track racing is kind of our bread and butter, right? So we have that there. This is a great second choice to get to a city, but there's nothing that's going to top giving people true short track. What is NASCAR? Here it is. Take an Uber from Broadway to the racetrack and go watch," he said via Cup Scene. [3:24 onwards]

With his recent win at Atlanta, Elliott has logged ten top-10s to rank second in the driver's standings, 13 points shy of his teammate and season leader, William Byron.

Next up, he heads to Sonoma Raceway, a road course where he's had a good track record with an average finish of 5.7. Notably, he has led in outing at the track ever since the Next Gen Era. Fans can watch the race unfold on TNT Sports on Sunday, July 13. The 110-lap race is scheduled to run at 3:30 PM ET.