Is There a Rivalry Brewing at Trackhouse Racing?

With multiple green-white-checker restart attempts during Sunday’s (March 26) NASCAR Cup race at Circuit of The Americas, there was bound to be some hurt feelings.

With no shortage of contact during the final two laps, there was some heated radio traffic and words exchanged between Trackhouse Racing Team teammates Daniel Suarez and Ross Chastain.

This isn’t the first time there’s been some rumblings of discontent between the two, but is this just the result of two young, competitive drivers being in close proximity or is there a potential rivalry brewing within one of NASCAR’s newest success stories?

This week Trenton Worsham and Wyatt Watson air their differences in 2-Headed Headed Monster.

Brothers Are Brothers, at the Track & in the House

Look, the biggest competition between drivers in any form of motorsport is their own teammates. We see this on display on the hit Netflix show Drive To Survive, but in terms of a pure rivalry between the two Trackhouse Racing drivers boiling over into more, I just don’t see that yet.

Also, unlike Formula 1, NASCAR seems to use its drivers to help the other with setups and overall race craft rather than beat the other or have weekly team orders to help the other win.

What I saw on Sunday was Chastain and Suarez battling it out in a hot, long, drawn out race, the result of multiple overtime attempts with Alex Bowman in the mix. One driver bumped another and Suarez was unfortunately the casualty of the matter.

It seemed on pit road he was more upset with Bowman in the aftermath, as he bumped Chastain to the side and repeatedly rammed into the rear of Bowman.

If anyone has been following Suarez’s career closely, you do see he actually does race with a chip on his shoulder, after being in very fast cars at Joe Gibbs Racing and Stewart-Haas Racing throughout his career.

Trackhouse Racing became his landing spot and the team saw almost overnight results and success. However, it was no secret that Chastain did outperform his teammate in 2022, making the final four and finishing second in the playoffs after the Phoenix Raceway championship race.

Obviously, Suarez wishes it were him in that position, but it is a new season and both cars once again have speed every week, and one week doesn’t define a bitter rivalry spilling over outside of the organization.

Team owner Justin Marks is also about…