(Photo: Christopher Vargas | The Podium Finish)
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Noah Gragson and Ross Chastain had a heated discussion on pit road after Sunday’s AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway that led to a brawl and punches thrown.
While battling for position in Turn 4 earlier in the race, Chastain crowded Gragson in the top groove and Gragson scraped the wall. He responded by immediately dooring Chastain down the frontstretch. Gragson, who ran in the 10th to 15th range for most of the race, ended up finishing five laps down in 29th.
After the race ended, Gragson approached Chastain by the car and they began discussing. Gragson eventually grabbed Chastain and Chastain threw a punch before security guards broke up the melee.
“Just got fenced by the 1,” Gragson told FOX Sports after the race. “I’m just over it. Nobody else has the balls to at least confront him. If you don’t at least just grab him and do something, he’s just going to keep doing it. I’m over it.
“I have respect for Justin Marks and the rest of the Trackhouse [Racing] team. That’s why I’m not wrecking him on the racetrack … I’m ready to fight [Chastain]. I didn’t even get a shot in because the security guards got in the middle of it.”
(Photo: Christopher Vargas | The Podium Finish)
The two drivers had an earlier run-in at Talladega Superspeedway two weeks ago. While battling for the win, Chastain made an aggressive move in NASCAR Overtime that led to Gragson hitting the inside wall and ending his day.
In a postrace media scrum with reporters, Chastain said that Gragson approached him on the plane after Talladega, similarly to how he did at Kansas.
“I got tight off of [Turn] 4 for sure. Noah and I have a very similar attitude on the racetrack, and we train together, we prepare together, we know each other’s — every little bit about each other,” Chastain said. “He came down and grabbed a hold of me, and a very big man once told me we have a no-push policy here at Trackhouse.”
Despite the incident, Chastain rebounded to finish fifth and record his second consecutive top-five result. Although still winless in 2023, he extended his points lead to 31 over Christopher Bell, who crashed and did not finish.
“Hats off to everybody at Advent Health for coming here to the Advent Health 400 and fight for a top five,” Chastain said. “There was times in the race where we did not have the grip and the balance in the car to do that. A couple good restarts at the end, and a perfect matched set of tires by Phil Surgen to see a heck of a fight from this group.”
