NASCAR insiders weigh Daniel Suárez-Ross Chastain beef at Sonoma, if revenge is justified

Ross Chastain sent Trackhouse Racing teammate Daniel Suárez for a spin on Lap 46 of Sunday’s race at Sonoma Raceway. The incident was magnified even more, given Suárez’s recent announcement that he will not return to Trackhouse in 2026.

Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic doesn’t believe that played a role in the contact between the two drivers. He called it an “unfortunate racing accident” in which multiple cars just got stacked up in Turn 11.

“This is Turn 11 at Sonoma. We see it all the time, guys get stacked up,” Bianchi said on The Teardown podcast. “It looked like the 22 [Joey Logano] braked hard, the 99 [Suárez] got stacked up and the 1 [Chastain] came in hard. If you go back to the 99’s radio, they actually told him about Ross before that about ‘Hey, Ross is getting in there really hard. Be aware of that.’

“To me, this is an unfortunate racing accident involving teammates and because it involves teammates — one of which is leaving at the end of the year — that gets magnified a bit. This is another one where it’s much ado about nothing. I know what Suárez said on the radio, but we know what it is. Guys say things in the heat of the moment on the radio.”

Daniel Suárez, Ross Chastain involved in on-track incident at Sonoma

Drivers often say things in the heat of the moment on the radio. Suárez was no different here. He threatened to get back at Chastain if he saw him again.

“Better hope I don’t get to him today,” Suárez said.

Jeff Gluck of The Athletic understood where Suárez was coming from at the time. Chastain is still his teammate; should he have been less aggressive racing Suárez?

“If I was Suárez, I would not feel as forgiving that it was just a racing incident,” Gluck said. “I would say, ‘Hey, isn’t my teammate going to take care of me a little bit more? Give me a little more courtesy here?’ But I don’t know. When these guys are driving on the edge of the track… it’s tough to make judgements in that kind of moment.”

Suárez scored the better finish at Sonoma. He finished 14th, Chastain P24.