If you ask Ross Chastain about that second-to-last restart, that one is on him. That won’t make Kyle Larson feel any better about it. The two drivers likely had the best cars the entire afternoon. Hard racing got too hard and both drivers were wrecked out of the lead.
While Ross Chastain was unable to continue the race, Larson went on to keep racing. So, for once, Chastain got got by his own mishaps. This is one of the few times that Chastain paid for a mistake he made. But so did Larson, even though he finished the race.
The wreck basically handed William Byron the win, which is nice for Hendrick Motorsports, not so much for Larson the driver.
“Full commit into [Turn 1] and I got really tight and drove up and turned myself,” Chastain said after being released from the care center. “I wanted to squeeze him, I wanted to push him up. We had been trading back and forth all day and I wanted to push him up for sure but definitely didn’t want to turn myself into the wall.”
As for how Larson will feel about it, Chastain feels that he got the worst end of the deal. So, they’re even…right?
We are just not going to stop hearing about Ross Chastain getting into other drivers. So, let’s embrace it. This week it was once again Kyle Larson. That No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team believes that Chastain screwed them over at Kansas as well. Feels like something is brewing.
For those expecting another Chastain fight, don’t hold your breath. Larson is likely the last person in the garage who is going to go looking for an altercation. He’d rather just beat guys on the track whenever he can.
Ross Chastain isn’t going to change
Now, another thing you shouldn’t hold your breath for, is Ross Chastain changing. At all. His whole career he has made a living off of aggressive driving. It almost cost him his NASCAR career. He’s learned to hone it a bit, but aggressive driving will lead to wrecks. That is the reality of racing.
No matter how mad other drivers get, this is who Ross is. When you race next to him, you have to know that. Either be faster than him or get away from him. And if you can’t do that, then race him as clean as you can and hope for the best. Martin Truex Jr. tried to race him hard at the end of Stage 2 and he spun out because of it.
Chastain led a lot of laps today. So, he’s likely just as disappointed in the result as Larson. At this point, the Melon Man needs to embrace the hate and just let it flow through him. He is the bad guy on the track and everyone knows it.
His peers on the track, the fans in the stands and at home, anyone that watches. This is just who Ross Chastain is.
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