NASCAR Cup Series 2023: Twitter Reacts To Ross Chastain Fighting For Lead At Darlington, Wrecking Kyle Larson For 3rd Time

chastain leads larson at darlington (1)

The two fastest NASCAR Cup Series cars appeared in position for a six-lap showdown during Sunday’s Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway. Except one of those cars was piloted by Ross Chastain and the other by Kyle Larson.  

After Chastain beat Larson on the late restart, the over-aggressive “Melon Man” attempted to squeeze the 2021 Cup Series champion instead of racing him mano a mano, but didn’t. The result? More Chastain disdain … 

Since Larson’s win at Martinsville on April 16, Chastain has taken out his Chevrolet rival at Talladega, Dover (after the No. 1 car wrecked Brennan Poole in front of Larson) and now Darlington. Larson’s crew chief, Cliff Daniels, vented on the team radio: “That’s three races he’s taken us out of now. Three races.” It was another bad look for Chastain, at any view …

After crashing out from the lead to 29th place Sunday, Chastain remained in the Cup Series points lead, but his machine departed on a tow truck …

Despite William Byron taking advantage of the late crash to win his third race of the season, team owner Rick Hendrick spoke out in defense of Larson, saying: “It’s really getting old with these guys.” Chastain should take note of the iconic figure’s message …

Immediately after his chance to win the race was wiped away by Chastain’s squeeze attempt, Larson floored the throttle into the wrecked door of Chastain’s machine, creating new meaning to Trackhouse Racing’s “no-push policy …”

“What a hack,” Larson chimed in on his team radio, but will NASCAR officials listen …

For his part, Chastain admitted to Fox Sports that he initiated the mistake …

But that made little difference to the No. 5 team. It went from a potential trip to Victory Lane to a slow walk to the garage area …  

Larson did not initially elect to talk about Sunday’s events, but just wait …

The wife of one Larson fan, however, had plenty to say, starting with her desire to go home after the late accident, which fueled additional Chastain disdain …

 

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