Ross Chastain went from racing for the win to being wrecked by Kyle Larson on one of the final restarts of the Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway on Sunday evening.
Both Chastain and Larson are former winners of the Ally 400, and they were looking to head back to Victory Lane, battling with Denny Hamlin during the final laps of the race. However, Larson got loose, slid up the track and clipped Chastain, ending the No. 1 wheelman’s shot at his first win in 2024.
Afterwards, Chastain spoke with the media about the incident, choosing his words carefully as he tired to figure out exactly what went wrong in Nashville.
“Juts hung on the No. 11’s right rear. Got a good start, and was turned around backwards,” Chastain told FOX’s Bob Pockrass. “I didn’t see what happened.”
Of course, Chastain might not be too kind to Larson after watching the replay of the incident. While Larson and Hamlin both have three wins on the season, Chastain is still looking for his first, not officially locked into the playoffs. He’s been one of the top drivers without a win in 2024 though.
Still, that’s no consolation for Chastain, and Larson recognizes that. He spoke about how terrible he felt taking out the No. 1 when the race was over and done with, as well.
“Yeah, I was with Denny, Denny on the front, and I was just going to try to wash him — get into him, to wash him off the bottom, to get myself some clean air, because I knew just being in the second row, whether you’re inside or outside, you weren’t going to have a shot, and I thought my opportunity to give myself a chance to win was to get clean air on the nose,” Larson told FOX’s Bob Pockrass. “And yeah, I just ran in really deep, got really tight and drive into Ross. So yeah, hate that, for sure.”
Moving forward, Chastain will be hoping to lock his spot up in the playoffs, as he searches for his first win of 2024. His last win actually came during the Cup Series finale in 2023, when the season’s championship is awarded, when he out-raced Ryan Blaney at Phoenix.
It didn’t result in a championship for the Trackhouse Racing star, as he wasn’t part of the Championship 4, but that’s where Ross Chastain has designs on ended up in 2024. We’ll see if he can get there, and use what happened to him at Nashville as motivation.
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