Trackhouse Racing's Ross Chastain has been making headlines in the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season for both right and somewhat wrong reasons so far. The Alva, Florida native is known for his aggressive, no-holds barred driving style on the track, which has ruffled many drivers and won him races so far this season.
However, it's this same driving style that has also gotten the 29-year-old into trouble with his fellow drivers in the Cup Series. Chastain has been accused of running into people and spinning them out and/or ruining their races with no precievable gains at certain points in races.
One of the highlights of the on-track action was between Denny Hamlin and Ross Chastain during the Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Speedway earlier this year. The 300-mile-long race saw Chastain bump the #11 FedEx Toyota Camry TRD driver out of his way, only to have Hamlin retalliate on numerous occasions during the race. Chase Elliott also got involved when the #1 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 driver managed to spin the Hendrick Motorsports driver out.
Last Sunday's M&M's Fan Appreciation 400 saw Hamlin and Chastain battle for position once again on track on a late restart, where Hamlin made sure there was no room to spare for the Trackhouse Racing driver, which caused him to crash. Chastain acknowledged what happened on track after he retired, and said:
“That’s been something that’s owed to me for a few months now so, I’m proud of the effort by Trackhouse (Racing). It’s week in and week out we keep bringing fast Chevrolet Camaros, to keep bringing bullets and to keep bringing fast cars is a testament to to GM and evrybody at Chevrolet’’
Watch the interview below:
Denny Hamlin's thoughts on his run-in with Ross Chastain at Pocono Raceway last Sunday
When asked how he viewed the incident from his point of view, Denny Hamlin made it clear that the run-in with Ross Chastain was 'expected', and said:
“I mean, what do you want me to do, what do you expect me to do? We got position on him and he just ran out of racetrack.’’
When asked whether the feud between the two drivers was over, Hamlin elaborated:
“We’re gonna just keep racing hard until we get the respect back from these guys. It’s not just that we’ve been wrecked four times, twice while leading in the last ten months and I’m just at the end of that.’’
Watch the interview below:
Watch Ross Chastain and Denny Hamlin go head-to-head once again next weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.