Ross Chastain has transformed into a NASCAR Cup Series star in 2022. He’s earned his first two Cup wins, posted 11 top-10 finishes in 17 races and sits second in the points behind Chase Elliott. He’s a dark-horse candidate for the championship and could even factor into the driver of the year conversation.
It’s a level of success few, if any, expected from the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Team six months ago.
But it also hasn’t won him any friends.
Instead, Chastain’s aggressive driving style keeps his enemies closer, close enough to bump them out of the way. His first win at Circuit of the Americas is a pinpoint example: a pinball-style move sent AJ Allmendinger slamming into Alex Bowman, leaving Chastain scooting away from both of them to take the win.
“At the end of the day, we all got to look at ourselves in the mirror,” Allmendinger said then. “If you’re OK with it, you’re OK with it. Each person’s different.”
Most of the time, Chastain has owned his role in these conflicts. He’s taken time to speak with drivers one-on-one and offered public apologies.
But others haven’t been quite as accommodating as Chastain’s former Kaulig Racing teammate. Martin Truex Jr. had a fiery conversation with Chastain after contact wrecked him at Dover Motor Speedway. Earlier this month at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, Chastain angered Denny Hamlin to the point he impeded the No. 1 for laps at a time once an incident turned Hamlin into the wall and wounded his No. 11 Toyota.
“It’s good he takes responsibility,” Hamlin said after Gateway. “But ultimately, it ruined our day … We all have to learn the hard way, and we’ve all had it come back around on us. [And this case] will be no different.”
That buildup led to an awkward conversation between Chastain and NBC Sports’ Parker Kligerman during Sunday’s (June 26) Nashville Superspeedway rain delay coverage. Passing time inside the garage, Kligerman pressed him about looking to race “with less drama.”
“When I race guys, I want it to be for the win, and I want to race them for the win,” Chastain said. “And I just need to not do it for fifth place on lap 55. Right? I need to have some better couth about it. So … I don’t know how to fix it, I just know I want this so bad. And that doesn’t mean that I just get to run into people. Like, I get that. And trying to be better has been a challenge. I…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Frontstretch…