Noah Gragson explains pit road fight with Ross Chastain: ‘Nobody has the balls to confront him’
From left turns to right hands.
Ross Chastain and Noah Gragson came together on the race track on Sunday, and then they met off of it following the AdventHealth 400 at the Kansas Speedway.
Chastain and Gragson exchanged some “pleasantries” in their respective cars throughout the race, with Gragson triggering the 10th caution of the race not too long after the two drivers played bumper cars.
After Denny Hamlin took the race win, the two exchanged a couple of fists, not pleasantries, on pit row.
Ross Chastain and Noah Gragson fight after the NASCAR Cup Series finish in Kansas! pic.twitter.com/EEbA4VeVZ0
— FOX Sports (@FOXSports) May 7, 2023
MORE: NASCAR at Kansas City results — Hamlin outlasts Larson in a messy thriller
Afterward, both Chastain and Gragson explained their parts in the dust-up:
“Got fenced by [Ross Chastain] … I’m sick and tired of it.”- Noah Gragson https://t.co/B0M9HYikaW pic.twitter.com/JeLAVv1dIt
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) May 7, 2023
I got fenced by the 1 (Ross Chastain). He took care of us at Talladega; we’re Chevrolet teammates, it didn’t work with us there. He fenced us here. Nobody else has the balls to at least confront him, so. At least just grab him, and do something, and he’s gonna keep doing it.
I’m over it. It’s the second time. I have respect for Justin Marks and the rest of the Trackhouse team, but that’s why I’m not wrecking him on the race track … but I’m ready to fight him. I didn’t even get a shot in because the security guards got in the middle of it. But nobody confronts the guy. He keeps doing it, and I’m sick and tired of it.
Chastain took a little bit more of diplomatic approach to the happenings:
“We have a no-push policy here at Trackhouse.”- Ross Chastain on his Kansas scuffle with Noah Gragson https://t.co/g9cqmV17Um pic.twitter.com/lZZQ3v1fMT
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) May 7, 2023
I got tied off at (Turn 4), for sure. Noah and I have a very similar attitude on the race track. We train together, we prepare together, we know each others’ … every little bit about each other. I definitely crowded him up off of 4, he took a swipe at us at 3 and came down and grabbed a hold of me.
A very big man once told me we have a no-push policy here at Trackhouse.
Ultimately, Gragson’s spin cost him about five laps; he finished 29th. Chastain finished the race in fifth place. Last time the two cars met on the track, it cost Gragson his race at the GEICO 500 in Talladega.
We’ll go to the scorecards to see who won the fight, though.
Published at Sun, 07 May 2023 23:53:23 +0000