Of all the things Ross Chastain has been criticized, called out, and bashed for in the last year or so, one thing remains undeniable – his sheer talent. Chastain is one of the most talented drivers currently in NASCAR who brings something different, something perhaps a bit old school to the table.

The Trackhouse Racing driver has found himself a lot of haters and a lot of critics for his aggressive driving style and his consistency to be who he is despite him costing his competitors on the track.

But it is his talent, his pace, and his results that somewhat counter the criticism.

An example of this happened recently when a NASCAR fan called him out and held him responsible for the Richmond incident that had him termed as a “wrecking ball” as well as many such incidents in recent races, spotters Freddie Kraft and Brett Griffin defended Chastain.

Ross Chastain is one of the best drivers in NASCAR right now as per Brett Griffin

In a recent episode of the Door Bumper Clear podcast, a fan touched upon the incident between Christopher Bell and William Byron in Richmond as he called out the “common denominator” in that along with the recent late-race incidents.

“Ross *expletive* Chastain. Constantly putting drivers in sketchy a** positions because of his dogbomb bulls**t. Somebody needs to pop him right in that watermelon on his shoulders,” the fan’s rant went.

This led to Freddie Kraft, the spotter of Bubba Wallace defending the #1 driver as he said, “I know we do love to pile on Ross (Chastain) whenever we get a chance, but this is not a situation where we can pile on Ross because Ross didn’t do anything wrong.”

Kraft’s fellow spotter, Brett Griffin, then claimed, “Ross Chastain is one of the top 5 best things in the Cup Series right now.”

“He gives us something to talk about, he drives hard, he doesn’t care about people’s feelings,” he added.

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Penalty upheld from Denny Hamlin’s Chastain incident in Phoenix

It was recently announced that Denny Hamlin’s penalty for him intentionally wrecking Ross Chastain in Phoenix would be upheld leaving him $50,000 and 25 points short.

Initially, his incident with Chastain wasn’t noticed by many as anything malicious. But then the veteran went on his podcast show and admitted to intentionally wrecking the #1 driver.

And 24 hours later, NASCAR handed him a penalty.

Hamlin announced he’d appeal, claiming as per ESPN, “I didn’t wreck him. I didn’t spin him as NASCAR is contesting. I simply made contact that was avoidable.”

But it seems the appeals board took his word from the previous podcast episode instead of his emergency podcast episode as they decided to keep his penalty up.

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