Ross Chastain has developed into one of NASCAR’s most magnetic personalities. Lately, his car has also been magnetic.
The latest metal-attracting-metal moment from the Trackhouse Racing ace came on Sunday at Darlington Raceway, where he pressed 2021 Cup Series champ Kyle Larson in a late-race duel that ended in stock-car shrapnel. The two drivers led significant swaths of the Goodyear 400 but neither was around to contend for the victory in overtime.
RELATED: Chastain, Larson collide late | Cup Series standings
Rick Hendrick celebrated after William Byron drove the No. 24 to its 100th Cup Series win, but the contact that thwarted Larson roused the typically slow-to-anger team owner, and he issued a bit of a salvo from the media center dais.
“I think you can ask any driver in here that he’s wrecked or been involved with him,” Hendrick said. “He doesn’t have to be that aggressive, and I guess at this point in the race maybe you’re super aggressive, but you just don’t run people up in the fence or just — he’s not going to — he’s going to make a lot of enemies. It’s hard to win a championship when you’ve got a lot of paybacks out there.”
The NASCAR-sphere was still buzzing about Chastain’s sparring session with Noah Gragson the previous weekend at Kansas Speedway when this latest episode of aggression dropped. Rewind one week earlier to Dover and it was another Chastain move that sent Brennan Poole’s slower car skidding into Larson’s path.
Chastain’s list of rivals has grown this year, and Larson is the latest member of the club.
Still, Chastain’s unabashed approach to racing has attracted a following. Reactions to his name on the roll call of driver introductions have become more polarizing. The 30-year-old journeyman is a no-nonsense hero to some, incorrigible villain to others, and his Trackhouse Racing team has previously wrapped its arms around Chastain’s style, staying true to its mantra of disrupting the status quo, even within the bounds of the ownership establishment and under the Chevrolet umbrella.
“Well, I don’t know if Chevrolet can cool it down. I don’t know that,” Hendrick said, referring to No. 5 crew chief Cliff Daniels’ suggestion on the radio that the manufacturer should intercede. “That’s not the way they usually operate. It’s either NASCAR or the drivers, the owners. You’ve heard the pit crew say before, we like it. We don’t care if people like us. We’re here to run over and win. If it doesn’t change, he’s going to have a hard time winning a championship.”
Nearly 24 hours later, one of the vested owners had already stepped in. Trackhouse founder Justin Marks told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio that the organization was taking measures to address the string of incidents. Marks indicated that Chastain had raced hard throughout the day at Darlington, making moves that placed him in position to win.
“Ross clears Kyle and makes that pass and wins the throwback weekend to Darlington seven days after getting a scuffle on pit road, the guy’s a legend,” Marks told SiriusXM. “And you know, he’s got the skill to do that. He’s got the ability to do that. The result was just bad. It just was bad for everybody. … And so, you know, this has been my life today. I mean, we have addressed it. We’ve had many conversations with different people today, some difficult conversations. And I think the important message here is that we are a believer in Ross’ talent. That’s obvious. He’s very fast, but he’s got some things he’s got to clean up. I mean, I’ll just be totally honest with you. And we today started the process of more aggressively handling that, with our partners, with Ross and with our team because, not because necessarily that we’re mad at him but because there’s so much opportunity here, and we’re addressing it.
“I’m going to take a more active role in it, and I love the kid and I love the opportunity that he’s giving every single person that works at Trackhouse to be able to put a championship run together but there’s just stuff that needs to be cleaned up, and it’s a process he’s going to have to start going through sooner rather than later. We are very supportive of him. We’re very supportive of this team. And we are addressing it.”
The thing about Hendrick’s claim of Chastain’s hard road to a championship: Amid all the controversy, conflict and contact, the current NASCAR Cup Series points leader is … Ross Chastain. His five stage wins are second only to the league-leading six from Byron, another top championship contender. One key difference is that Byron already has three wins through the first half of the regular season, while Chastain is still searching for his first.
There are multiple routes to a Cup Series title, but winning is certainly the most direct. As Hendrick suggests, that path is made more difficult by frequently re-aligning the feathers of his peers. But in the same breath, the team owner lauded Chastain’s gobs of talent, saying that he just needs to find a balance of picking his spots and knowing when to push it.
NASCAR honored its 75 Greatest Drivers this weekend at Darlington, gathering legends of the sport from multiple generations. Chastain may well wind up on the list of 100 Greatest in the next quarter-century, depending on how his career goes from here, but his season’s body of work thus far feels like an audition for an unofficial list of the 75 Most Aggressive Drivers to join the diamond-anniversary superlatives.
Depending on your point of view, that’s either a rambunctious dark spot or a badge of honor to be worn proudly. It’s a formula that could result in a breakthrough championship. That, or another magnetic moment.