Late restart tangle dooms Chase Elliott, Justin Allgaier at Pocono

"I think he just ran in there too hard and caught a bad section of air or something weird," Elliott said. "It got him turned sideways and turned him towards my door really fast. What am I going to do? Either give him space or crowd him and crash. 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 (expletive) for no reason."

After the race, Allgaier walked over to Elliott, and the two drivers engaged in a cordial conversation. While Elliott didn't disclose what was said, he was very respectful of Allgaier. 

"I have a lot of respect for Justin," Elliott said. "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, considering it's my last one (Xfinity race in 2025) for the year.

"I was wanting to cash in that one." 

It was a disappointing loss for both drivers, especially Elliott, who led the most laps (38) and started on the pole. 

At the end of the day, Allgaier and Elliott's incident was a racing deal that will always happen so long as Pocono's wide, sweeping turn 1 remains in place.