Ross ‘Wrecking Ball’ Chastain has sealed his fate as NASCAR’s modern-era villain, owing to his on-track antics. From punching Noah Gragson to wrecking Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson thrice this season, the Trackhouse Racing #1 driver was handed a stern warning from Rick Hendrick himself. Running a clean race at the Nashville Superspeedway, Chastain added another name to his growing list of enemies, when he bumped Todd Gilliland at the Chicago street circuit.
As the strengthened Next-Gen car has put up with Chastain’s on-track aggression, RFK Racing’s Brad Keselowski had some choice words for the Trackhouse Racing driver.
Brad Keselowski warns Ross Chastain
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Appearing on ‘The Kenny Conversation’, 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion, Brad Keselowski delved into the current state of NASCAR. Speaking to host Kenny Wallace, Keselowski shared his thoughts on the evolution of NASCAR’s Next-Gen car. Having raced in both the ‘Car of Tomorrow’ and the Gen-6 cars, Keselowski revealed how the Next-Gen cars were structurally more resilient than their former counterparts. On the topic of resilience, the RFK Racing owner touched on how Ross Chastain’s wrecking spree would have landed him in a tough spot had it been in 2021.
“Everybody talks about Ross Chastain nowadays. You put Ross Chastain in a Gen 5, Gen 6 car and he’s in the garage at lap 50, because you can’t touch people with those cars or you couldn’t hit them like they do now,” Brad Keselowski said.
To this revelation, Kenny Wallace said, “That was a good point, he’d have been wrecked out way early.”
Detailing the consequences Ross Chastain‘s actions could have warranted had he gone on a wrecking spree in 2021, Keselowski said, “Yeah well, he wouldn’t have been wrecked out, he’d wrecked himself out!”
“Right, knock the radiator out,” Herman chipped in.
Brad Keselowski further added, “Yeah exactly, and so, I don’t like this. We went too far, we went from a car that was probably a little too fragile to now a car that’s like, ‘Hey I can bounce this thing off the wall and just keep on trucking’. I think that’s probably a little too far.”
Watch This Story: Martin Truex Jr Blamed Denny Hamlin For Losing To Ross Chastain On The Radio
As iterated by Keselowski, NASCAR’s Next-Gen’s structurally sound chassis is far more forgiving in terms of bumps and crashes. Even then, ever since the Next-Gen cars debuted in 2022, questions regarding the Next-Gen’s safety have plagued NASCAR.
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Constantly pushing its strong stance on safety, Kyle Larson and Ryan Preece’s crash at Talladega Superspeedway had NASCAR biting its tongue. Then, Legacy Motor Club’s Noah Gragson developed concussion-like symptoms following his crash at Gateway Motorsports Park. NASCAR’s troubles didn’t end there as Ryan Blaney’s scary crash at Gateway left him a little ‘foggy’, triggering a massive debate on the Next-Gen car’s safety.
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Finding itself embroiled in criticism right from the Talladega debacle, NASCAR sought the counsel of its VP of safety engineering, Dr. John Patalak. Determining the shortcomings of the Next-Gen car, the right sidebars were further strengthened with steel plates. An empty ballast box and a modified cross-brace were added, while the V-brace from the front clip of the car was scrapped.
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Having heavily reworked its Next-Gen car, NASCAR in June announced that the upgrades would be brought into effect from the upcoming race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.