Kyle Larson won his first-ever Brickyard 400 this past Sunday. But before he made headlines at the end of a double overtime and 167 laps, Larson turned quite a few heads at the start of the final stage of the Indianapolis Cup race. Battling for a potential top-5 spot, some hard racing and contact with Martin Truex Jr brought out the 5th yellow of the event, courtesy of Hendrick Motorsports’ #5 driver. 

Although Larson emerged unfazed from the incident without much notable loss in track position, his Joe Gibbs Racing rival, MTJ, lost more than his dignity and speed after his #19 crashed into the SAFER barriers off turns 3 & 4 following this brush-up. Truex was understandably mad. However, his initial anger may have been misdirected towards a totally different driver who had a minimal part to play in the #19 team’s Brickyard misery. That driver is Ross Chastain. And the fans haven’t been too kind to him, following Truex’s unnecessary radio callout of the Melon Man for a wreck he did not cause.

The great Indy Stage 3 mystery: Who’s to blame for Martin Truex Jr’s misery?

When the race finally ended, Ross Chastain & Martin Truex Jr finished P15 and P28 respectively. This did not bore well for both playoff hopefuls, chasing a Brickyard win to lock in their unconfirmed spots with just 4 races left to make the post-season. As a result, both these drivers were engaged in exciting exchanges throughout the race. But it was most evident when the green waved for the final stage, as MTJ rolled off the grid 4th with Chastain in his tow on the same restart line in 6th.

It is important to note that after his tire went down only a few left turns later by contact with Kyle Larson, and then the wall on Turn 3, MTJ expressed his frustrations over the radio saying, “[No.] 1 car, just shoved me out of the way, as usual.” Agreed the #1 traded a little paint with the #19 before it lost control off the right side of Kyle Larson’s #5 Chevy near turn 3, but it barely looked like Chastain shoved MTJ out of his way on this particular instance for him to head for the outer wall.

If anything, the #1 rolled behind the #5 and the #19 following the three-wide situation that caused it to make minor contact with MTJ’s JGR Toyota. Ross Chastain was racing MTJ hard. But it was Larson who had brought about the misfortunes, albeit unintentionally. Hence, many wondered why MTJ was even fuming at Chastain in the first place.

Nevertheless, footage of Martin Truex Jr’s in-car floating online on the Stage 3 restart might reveal a clearer picture. Twitter user @Basso488 recently shared the video on social media aiming to provide further explanation. He aptly captioned the video, “What Truex was talking about.” In the footage, Chastain moved MTJ’s #19 up the race track as it tried to outpace Chase Briscoe running the inside lane in P3 alongside Truex once the green waved. This maneuver was maybe a little unprecedented, but it wasn’t uncommon for a driver like Ross Chastain.

Following this incident, Alex Bowman & Kyle Larson made the pass on Truex. Therefore, maybe the New Jersey native was mad for letting Chastain open up that lane with a push on his bumper which effectively allowed the car responsible for his P28 anguish through on Lap 105.

Regardless, this wouldn’t be MTJ’s only incident in the race. He would once again have a tire go down about 20 laps later on Turn 3 which brought out the 7th caution flag. This time Truex had no one to blame but himself. But the dirty air stirred up by his comments earlier in the race had detrimental effects on Truex over social media. And even more for Chastain, considering his inability to escape fan dissent due to his often-aggressive and unpopular driving style.

Fans divided on social media over Ross Chastain’s role

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More often than not, Chastain is caught in acts appropriate for, what some would call, ‘a reckless driver.’ Different demographics of the audiences may have varying opinions on that notion in 2024. But the NASCAR subreddit had some interesting observations to make once the news of Truex’s misery was effectively linked to the Melon Man on the Indy Stage 3 restart. One fan distastefully commented: “Ross Chastain turning left? Believe it or not Death.”

Others took a slightly more neutral stance, like this diehard who wrote, “Chastain doin’ Chastain thangs and Truex pissed somebody is racin’ him hard. Everything appears normal to me.” Some who might still deem Chastain completely innocent must “turn on the audio, you can hear Ross did get into the 19 to move him up a lane. It’s slight but it’s there,” explained another member of the NASCAR community.

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Agreeing with this earlier comment, another Reddit user wrote, “You’re right, but also that’s not why he (Martin Truex Jr) wrecked. He wrecked because he and Larson were racing hard around the turn and neither of them wanted to give an inch”. But others were “really surprised that no one on the broadcast realized that Truex was referring to him being moved out of the lane in turn one.” In all fairness, almost everyone speculated this outburst towards Chastain to have come for reasons before Truex’s hit on Turn 3.

However, this member of the NASCAR audience was heartfelt in his comments and it truly stood out over the whole issue with a contrasting perspective. “Personally, I believe Truex probably overreacted here. It was a shitty move by Ross to do that, but it was in stage 3 and you can’t pass worth a damn at Indy. Martin probably got mad and then drove over his head on the back stretch and into turn 3…,” they opined. Regardless, would that still warrant MTJ to lash out at Ross Chastain for reasons that were not in his total control?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.