Kyle Busch’s wife Samantha takes a veiled dig at ‘Schmuck’ Ross Chastain after final lap contact at Sonoma

Kyle Busch's wife Samantha has taken a jibe at Ross Chastain after the latter's final lap wreck dethroned the #8 Chevy driver from a potentially promising outcome. The Trackhouse Racing driver tried to outmaneuver the Richard Childress Racing driver to grab the fifth place but rammed into the latter's front right and threw him out of contention.

The Sonoma Raceway marked the 17th Cup Series debacle where Kyle Larson swept his third victory this season, reclaiming the pinnacle spot in the driver rankings. Meanwhile, Kyle Busch eyed to churn his maiden win and secure his seat in the playoffs, but his pursuit got disrupted with less than 1.99 miles of run remaining.

During the final lap, Ross Chastain ran in sixth place and kept his #1 Chevy close to Busch's high-octane ride. As the duo entered the turn, the Trackhouse Racing driver tried to swoop past Kyle Busch using the inside line when the RCR driver had a little oversteer and went slightly off the track.

However, the #8 Chevy tried to turn back in but got rammed by Chastain's car drifting it to the opposite corner of the track, losing several places before regaining momentum. As a result, the Las Vegas native seethed to a 12th-place finish.

Samantha Busch, being unhappy to see her husband losing the battle because of somebody else's wreck, took a veiled dig at Chastain for the horrendous run-in and portrayed the #1 Chevy driver as 'Schmuck' (via X).

"Ruined our day"- Kyle Busch expresses his displeasure over Ross Chastain's final lap wreck

Since the 2024 Cup Series season kicked off, Kyle Busch has shown glimpses of his superiority but has largely churned out subpar results. From 17 races, the two-time Cup Series champion has placed his #8 Chevy two times in the top 5 and five times in the top 10.

His last top-5 finish came at the Dover Motor Speedway, followed by a tenth-place finish at North Wilkesboro Speedway. However, the 39-year-old is yet to bag a victory to secure his spot in the round of 16. Even if he competes in all 26 regular season races, he has to have that much-needed win to guarantee his place among the title contenders.

Naturally, Kyle Busch has been eyeing his maiden victory since the season began but had to succumb to one setback or another. After getting wrecked by Kyle Larson at the World Wide Technology Raceway, the RCR driver hoped for a better result at Sonoma and came really close to it.

But Ross Chastain was there to trouble Busch and ended the latter's pursuit of a top-5 or top-10 finish, let alone get the chance of doing the victory burnouts.

After his disappointing stint on the Sonoma Hills, Kyle Busch highlighted that the Trackhouse Racing driver "ruined" his day.

"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. 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,” Busch said via Bob Pockrass on X.

Kyle Busch is placed one position below the playoffs cutoff in the 17th and needs a victory to turn his fate around.