Wallace’s ally sounds the alarm on Ross Chastain’s ‘unsustainable’ approach that left Chase Elliott fuming

Ross Chastain and Chase Elliott had a tense moment on the track at Darlington Raceway during the Xfinity Series race on Saturday, April 5. Bubba Wallace's spotter, Friddie Kraft, discussed Chastain's aggressive driving style on the latest Door Bumper Clear podcast, explaining it is unsustainable in the long run.

Elliott was unhappy with how Chastain aggressively squeezed him into the outside fence coming out of the turns, even letting his anger out during a caution period with 29 laps remaining. Elliott bumped into the #9 car of Chastain to show his frustration. This wasn't the first time Chastain tangled with Hendrick Motorsports drivers either.

In 2023, Rick Hendrick was particularly annoyed with having multiple collisions with Kyle Larson and even issued a public warning that if he kept up with his aggression, he would get it back from his drivers as well. Speaking about Chastain, Kraft explained how he is one of the toughest drivers to pass on the track because he puts his rivals in difficult positions.

"Ross (Chastain) is just... I think I saw a stat this week from Racing Analytics that he is the hardest guy to pass," Kraft remarked (56:10 onwards). "And it's because he puts you in those situations where you either lift or we're going to crash, you know, and most of the guys are just smart enough to like, 'All right, I guess I'm going to lift here because it's lap 50 of whatever run this is and we don't need to be done with it.'"

"But it's just not sustainable for me, you know. I mean, it's just, you're going to end up on the wrong side of it more times than not. I feel like... do you have to race this hard all the time?" Kraft quizzed his fellow co-hosts.

Apart from Chase Elliott, Chastain also had an incident with another Cup Series regular, Christopher Bell, who dropped back to P25 after a collision with the #9 car.

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"Want more of it" - Chase Elliott takes a sarcastic jab at Ross Chastain

Chase Elliott started the Xfinity race in eighth place but had to make a long pit stop at the end of Stage 1 to get repairs done on the right front of his #17 car. After rejoining the race on lap 49, he quickly started making up places and got up to P8 by the end of Stage 2.

He reached P5 by lap 104 and then ran into Ross Chastain, who made Elliott's life difficult by repeatedly running him up towards the wall on the exit of the corners. Elliott eventually finished the race in second place, and Chastain ended in fourth. When asked about his tussle with Chastain, Elliott sarcastically said he loved it and would want more.

Jeff Gluck of The Athletic shared Elliott's remark on X with a post that read:

"Asked by @ThePostman68 about the apparent displeasure with Ross Chastain and what happened, Chase Elliott says on MRN: 'Nothing. I enjoyed it. It was great. Want more of it.'"

Elliott finished P8 in the Cup Series race, the Goodyear 400, and dropped one place in the drivers' standings to P4.