Ross Chastain had an awesome afternoon at Sonoma Raceway, but it wasn’t without some controversy involving Kyle Busch.
On the final lap of the Toyota/Save Mart 350, the No. 1 wheelman seemingly spun Busch out, causing some discussion of whether or not Chastain purposefully moved the two-time Cup Series champion. Speaking with NASCAR’s Alex Weaver, Chastain addressed the situation, giving his side of the kerfuffle.
“I feel like the first or second lap of the race, and the last lap, were the most exciting, and the rest were just making lap times, aside from some restarts,” Chastain started. “It just feels so good to be back passing cars, and being fast, and being able to be aggressive and maintaining speed doing it. So, I’m pretty confused on how the strategy worked out. I don’t really know how the No. 5 won and I finished fifth, but I’m not sure what happened with the No. 8 either, I’ll be honest.
“I’m pretty confused about most things here, but he checked up down into 4A. I popped out to not hit him, and then I locked up, going in there, into his right. So definitely not trying to run into him, and then get run into by the No. 9 for a spot in 11. So, a lot of bowties running together today. Glad one of them got the win.”
Evidently, Chastain is pretty much pleading the fifth, not willing to say whether or not he meant to turn Busch. That’s probably a smart move, considering Chastain’s aggressive past, but it’s evident Busch isn’t taking the No. 1 wheelman’s reasoning as fact.
“A couple of guys there at the end of the race had better tires than we did but we were going to have a good day,” Busch said, following the race. “Unfortunately, one of those guys got into us on the last lap and ruined our day. It’s frustrating to not get the finish that we deserved.”
So, Busch certainly believes Chastain ruined his afternoon. Whether it was on purpose or not likely doesn’t matter, the No. 8 wheelman’s frustration continues to mount regardless.
Nevertheless, a top-five was huge for Chastain, as he’s struggled at times in 2024. He credited his crew chief and Trackhouse as a whole for putting him in position to succeed, even if he didn’t exactly know if their strategy would work out in the end.
“Well, our strategy was the winning one,” Chastain responded, asked if he would’ve deployed a different strategy on Sunday. “I felt like I went two hours without pitting, and then I pitted again 20 minutes later. So, I didn’t know what was going on, you know, how we were out there forever, with all of those early cautions. So no, whatever Phil Surgeon and Trackhouse wants to do, I go where they say. I just try to make lap time.
“My thoughts under caution are not about when to pit or not, or how many tires and how much fuel. I’m thinking about my tires on the car. How to prep them, how to get a good restart, how to make lap time. That’s what works so well with us, is I just drive it, good, bad or indifferent, and they let me drive it, good, bad or indifferent.”
In the end, Sunday was a solid one for Ross Chastain, but he might have to deal with the wrath of Kyle Busch moving forward, as the No. 8 wheelman won’t be too happy with the Trackhouse Racing star following his finish.
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