It's not often that I fundamentally disagree with
@FLRacingFan, but this time I do. FL is saying... (a) it's a dirty move but (b) Chase should have expected that and therefore selected the inside lane, and (c) since he didn't do that he now owes payback to Larson.
I'm as critical as anyone of the
"crash 'em to pass 'em" ethos that has always existed in Nascar but has become more prevalent in recent years. But this was not an example of that. This was just hard aggressive but fair racing IMO. So I don't think Chase owes payback for this incident (although I won't defend Larson in the earlier incident at Fontana, which was an egregiously late block at best). Just my dos centavos.
And like
@StandOnIt just said, the inside lane was generally more successful all day long. It's not about which lane is faster, it's all about which lane defends your P1 starting position.