A week after his first DNF of the season, Kyle Busch had another difficult outing at Sonoma. Busch was locked in an engaging battle for the fifth spot with Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain. However, during the last lap, the drivers made contact, and it led to Busch’s No. 8 Chevrolet spinning out. Even though Chastain denied any wrongdoing initially, Busch’s better half was not having any of it.

Busch seemed on track for a fifth place finish after the disappointment of Gateway. But because of the collision, he ended up in the 12th spot, while Chastain nabbed a top five spot. Afterwards, Busch was not happy with how things unfolded, but now his wife, Samantha has also taken a dig at Chastain.

Considering his history of two wins and two runner-up finishes at Sonoma Raceway, Kyle Busch aimed at the front row. The Richard Childress Racing driver was running well through the race. By lap 84, he occupied the third spot while Kyle Larson had not yet cracked the top five. But by lap 92, Larson had snatched Kyle Busch’s third place.

Then, as Larson shot through the ranks, Kyle Busch’s woes deepened as another rival entered the foray. The 110-lap Toyota Mart 350 came to a crashing end for the RCR driver. Ross Chastain resorted to his aggressive tactics and bumped Kyle Busch from the rear. This spun Busch toward the inner barrier, as Chastain capitalized.

PRN Live recently updated that Chastain admits to a crucial technical detail that hurt Busch’s outing. “Ross Chastain says he locked up the tires and hit Kyle Busch, making Busch’s problems even worse.” The contact with Chastain was coupled with an empty gas tank. This sequence of events is bound to make Busch clench his teeth, but his better half publicly posted her own frustrations.

Samantha Busch was watching the last lap closely and did not fancy Chastain’s tactics. She replied to PRN Live’s report on X, suspecting foul play on the Trackhouse Racing driver’s part, by writing, “Locked up my tires”, and then Busch added a five-word verdict, “aka over drove the corner.” She even added a GIF of a woman shrugging and saying, “Schmuck.”

The Sonoma finish meant Busch continues to have tough moments this year. He is yet to win a race this season and despite the incident on Sunday, Busch earned a P12 finish, his best showing since placing eighth at the Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway in early May.

Speaking after the race, Busch also expressed his frustrations with how the race panned out. “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.”

This time last year, Busch already had three wins to his name but currently he is on a 37-race winless streak, the longest of his career. His last win came at the World Wide Technology Raceway in 2023. Despite this, he remains eight points ahead of Joey Logano for the final playoff spot.

Meanwhile, after initially denying his role in the collision with Busch, Chastain came clean on what happened in the last lap at Sonoma.

Ross Chastain admits being at “fault” for Kyle Busch collision

Immediately after the race, Chastain said that he didn’t make a mistake in the lead up to the collision with Busch. He said he did not intentionally collide with Busch and attributed it to a mere accident. “I’ll be honest. I’m pretty confused about most things here, but he checked up down into [Turn] 4A, I popped out to not hit him… So, [I] definitely [was] not trying to run into him,” he said. However, he later appeared to change his stance.

“He checked up on the straightaway and I popped out to avoid him and then I locked up,” Chastain said. Admitting his fault, the Trackhouse Racing driver said, “That’s what I know and then I turned him around so I’m at fault for that probably. Hate it for that and then getting run into by the 9 coming into 11.”

Though he has come clean on what went down, it won’t help Busch recover the points he lost. For now, Chastain may not be in the good books of the Busch family, but he will hope his honesty saves him from further such scathing comments from Samantha.