There’s one thing that separates NASCAR from other sports and it’s that you can hear any driver talk to their spotter and crew chief over the radio in real time. And because drivers don’t have time to filter their thoughts while driving at 190 mph, you usually get the kind of honesty and emotion you wish you heard after a race.

In last Saturday’s Coke Zero 400 at Daytona, one such instance came when Chase Elliott spun down the grass in the backstretch. During the race, Elliott blamed the crash on Michael McDowell and he didn’t speak too highly of McDowell.

“If that damn 95 wrecks me one more time, man. Dammit! What in the hell is that MF’ers problem, man? That is the biggest dumbass I’ve ever seen in my life. That son of a bitch can’t drive a wood screw. Damn!” -Chase Elliott

McDowell’s defense during the race was that Kasey Kahne (Elliott’s teammate) ran into him who then ran into Elliott. Looking at the video, you can see that things got close and Elliott and Kahne may have pinched McDowell. You could see McDowell and Kahne already sideswiping each other and Elliott right there on McDowell didn’t help things. Elliott probably felt McDowell was in the wrong and was completely understandable. Replay shows it’s probably more the result of close restrictor plate racing than anything.

After this was posted, McDowell took to Twitter to call out Elliott for multiple crashes between the two drivers where he feels was Elliott’s fault.

McDowell is (likely) referring to a pit road crash between Elliott and McDowell at Kansas this past May.

As far as this pit road crash is concerned, this was 100% Elliott’s fault. Or more specifically, Elliott’s spotters fault. After you are finished with your pit work, you can pull out in the inner lane and if nobody is beside you once you’re up to speed, you can go to the outer lane on pit road. If someone is pulling into their pit, like McDowell was doing, McDowell has the right rightaway and Elliott had to be warned by his spotter and wait until it’s safe to leave his pit.

In terms of what happened at Daytona, Elliott came back to finish 22nd, one lap down. McDowell, racing for the underfunded Leavine Family Racing, finished 4th and was as high as 2nd toward the end of the race. It was the teams first ever top 5 finish.

I’m sure things would have cooled down between Elliott and McDowell by the end of the race but thanks to being able to listen to everybody’s radio, there’s nothing to hide the raw emotion of athletes being in the moment. Imagine being able to hear Tom Brady’s on-field thoughts rather than being forced to wait until after the game and we hear nothing but boring, stock answers to questions we already knew about.

About Phillip Bupp

Producer/editor of the Awful Announcing Podcast and Short and to the Point. News editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. Highlight consultant for Major League Soccer as well as a freelance writer for hire. Opinions are my own but feel free to agree with them.

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