You could see the disappointment on Ross Chastain’s face. He and the No. 1 team had been through a rough afternoon at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway. It’s not that they finished poorly; Chastain took the checkered flag in eighth. But on the way to the finish, Chastain found himself embroiled in controversy with Denny Hamlin and Chase Elliott. Watching the on-track shenanigans between Hamlin and Chastain especially, it felt almost certain that a post-race brawl would follow.
Instead, Chastain did something that is all too rare in NASCAR nowadays. He took responsibility for what happened on the track.
“Just terrible driving,” Chastain told FOX’s Jamie Little after the race. “It’s one thing to do it once, but I just kept driving into guys. At this level, I’m supposed to be better than that. It’s a shame for Moose and Advent Health and Jockey and Worldwide Express. To have all these people believing in me, and Justin Marks and Pitbull put me in this car, they deserve better.
“I owe half the field an apology … I can’t believe that I continue to make the same mistakes.”@JamieLittleTV talks with Ross Chastain after his run-ins with competitors at Gateway. pic.twitter.com/o3XicpVLJ0
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) June 5, 2022
“I will [talk to the other drivers], he continued. “I owe half the field an apology. Words aren’t going to fix it, so I’ll have to pay for it on the track, and almost did today, and I deserve everything that they do.”
The trouble began when Chastain made contact with Hamlin, spinning the No. 11 into the turn 2 wall on lap 56. Hamlin lost several laps getting the damage repaired and was clearly furious with Chastain for getting taken out of contention so early. For the rest of the afternoon, Hamlin did everything he could short of wrecking the No. 1 to make Chastain’s life difficult. Whether he was squeezing Chastain nearly off the track on the backstretch, blocking him through the corners or holding…
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