Ross Chastain Pleads Innocence in 8 Words After Ending Kyle Busch’s Sonoma Hopes

Last week, Kyle Busch ended up in a wreck with Kyle Larson at the World Wide Technology Raceway. While the Hendrick Motorsports driver turned around his fortunes at Sonoma one week later, Busch’s nightmare run in the Cup Series continued. Despite running impressively, Rowdy’s hopes of a good finish were shattered after an incident with Ross Chastain in California.

With just two top-five and five top-ten finishes this season, 2024 just hasn’t been a great year so far for Kyle Busch. Unfortunately, he is currently 37 races without a win, the longest winless run of his career. While he was on a good run on Sunday in Sonoma, Ross Chastain made a questionable move and messed it up for Busch.

Ross Chastain admits being confused after the Kyle Busch incident at Sonoma

Without a doubt, Kyle Busch has been trying his best to turn around his form this campaign. A driver of his caliber is certainly capable of doing more, and while he keeps trying, fortune doesn’t seem to favor him. With the incident with Kyle Larson last week and Ross Chastain on Sunday, it only gets worse for the #8 team.

Having said that, Busch very well remains in contention for the playoffs, standing at P15 after 16 races. Despite being involved in a wreck with Chastain, Rowdy managed a P12 finish on Sunday. To think of it, it could have drastically improved had the incident not taken place.

It was in the final lap of the race when Busch and Chastain chased for fifth place at Sonoma. However, things took a wild turn heading into turn four when the #1 driver drove deep into the inside of the RCR driver. Despite Busch offering plenty of room on the inside, Chastain ended up locking his tires under braking and clipping the #8 car in the right rear.

Eventually, it spun Busch and resulted in a disappointing P12 finish. While Ross Chastain played a major role in that, his thoughts spoke otherwise. Speaking after the race, the Trackhouse Racing driver looked delighted with the type of racing. In his interview with Alex Weaver, he said, “I feel like the first or second lap of the race and the last lap were the most exciting, and the rest were just making lap time besides some restarts.”

Interestingly, Chastain explained that he was left confused by almost everything that happened at the end of the race. He said, “I’m pretty confused on how the strategy worked out, I don’t really know how the #5 won or how I finished fifth.”

It was then that he pleaded his innocence about the Busch incident in eight words. Chastain said, “I’m not sure what happened with the #8. I’ll be honest, I’m pretty confused about most things here. He [Busch] checked up down into 4A; I popped out to not hit him, and then I locked up, getting in there to his right. So definitely, not trying to run into him.” 

While Chastain tried to convince his intent, Dale Earnhardt Jr believed the #1 driver was not guilty.

Dale Earnhardt Jr sides with Ross Chastain

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Given Ross Chastain and his aggressive style of racing, it is only normal that he looked like a guilty figure at Sonoma. Over the past few years, the Trackhouse Racing driver has been involved in multiple wrecks to not be considered innocent. Having said that, Dale Earnhardt Jr failed to feel any wrongdoing in Chastain’s incident with Kyle Busch on Sunday.

Speaking on “The Dale Jr Download,”  Junior denied any ill intent from Chastain. He said, “I don’t agree with that. Could Ross have avoided that? Yes. Could Ross have realized as soon as they both get into the brake pedal, I think there’s a moment where you can go, ‘All right, Kyle is going to equal me into this braking zone.’ And you can tell that really quickly. And you can say, ‘OK, I’m not going to get the spot here.”

Dale Jr then went in depth to justify Chastain’s innocence. He said, “I don’t know if he had that choice or not, but he didn’t run into the 8 on purpose. You see him swing the back. You see the back slip, step out, he corrects into the 8 and then he’s like, at that point I’ve just got to go. Sorry this is happening to you, Kyle Busch, but I’ve got to take care of the rest of my lap.”

Without a doubt, it’s an interesting perspective from the legendary Cup Series driver. While Ross Chastain failed to have the time to reverse his decisions, it was indeed too late. Regardless of the intent, Kyle Busch paid the price as he still searches for a win in 2024.