At this point, it doesn’t seem right if Ross Chastain doesn’t end up receiving an earful from other drivers or their teams for causing them problems during a NASCAR race. In Indianapolis, that’s what exactly happened, yet again.
First, it was his move into Turn 1 as he ran into and spun Rick Ware Racing’s Joey Hand, something that could be termed as a racing incident, but nevertheless elicited a bitter response from Chastain’s victim.
“Jackass”, Hand said of Chastain on his radio.
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Then there was the move, or rather, the lack of it towards the final restart in the race when the Trackhouse Racing driver decided to take the access road and completely leave the traffic behind.
What this ended up doing was that Chastain found himself fighting for the lead with Tyler Reddick, who eventually went on to win the race.
But yet again, Chastain was on the other end of a mouthful, this time from the spotter of the RCR driver.
“Run him off, that’s [expletive],” the spotter said of #8. “Screw this guy. Do what you got to do.”
“He will get penalized.”
Ross Chastain: Zero Fucks Given#Verizon200 #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/ltzQ8lnZ0O
— Mr Matthew CFB (@MrMatthewCFB) July 31, 2022
Ross Chastain taking the access road caused all sorts of confusion for Tyler Reddick
In a post-race interview, Ross Chastain, who initially finished second, explained his decision to take the access road instead of fighting for his place in the traffic in turn 1.
“I was trying to not be in the carnage in Turn 1,” Chastain said. “I saw we were four wide and I couldn’t go any further to the right, so I decided to take the NASCAR access road.”
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What this ended up doing though, was that Reddick got confused as to whether he should be battling with the #1, or should he wait around for the penalty.
“It didn’t seem like real life,” Reddick said. “I was like, what? I was waiting to see what was going to happen with that situation because I think I had Jim Pohlman say, ‘Hey, he’s probably going to get penalized.'”
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And that’s what happened in the end. Chatain was penalized and demoted from his second-place finish to 27th.
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