Where, oh where has the old Ross Chastain gone?
In the movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers, extraterrestrial beings would capture a person and replace them with an identical copy, or a pod person. The pod people looked exactly like the humans they replaced, but they were more dull and emotionless versions.
It really feels like the Chastain we see every Sunday now is a pod person.
He’s a stark contrast from the lovable, charming, funny farm boy who had transcended into a sort of folk hero in his first decade in NASCAR. Fans grew to like and appreciate Chastain in the late 2010s as he scratched and clawed to get underfunded teams the best finish possible.
They cheered for him when he earned an opportunity to drive a few NASCAR Xfinity Series races for Chip Ganassi Racing, resulting in a win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He even seemed like the victim and Kevin Harvick the villain in a race at Darlington Raceway where Chastain right-rear hooked the 2014 NASCAR Cup Series champion.
It was a sad day when Ganassi had to shutter its NXS team, because it felt like Chastain had lost the best opportunity he’d ever get. But instead of losing faith, the Florida man went back to grinding, nearly winning a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series title in the process. That made the fans like and appreciate him even more, and his blue-collar approach got him back to the NASCAR Cup Series with first Ganassi and then Trackhouse Racing.
When Chastain got hooked up with the latter, he immediately blossomed into a star on the Cup circuit. He started winning races, and along the way, started what the hosts of the Door, Bumper, Clear podcast called the “Don’t Give a F**k Tour.”
Chastain pissed off some of the biggest names in the garage, from Denny Hamlin to Chase Elliott to Ryan Blaney and more. And each time an incident he clearly caused happened, he’d turn on his charm in a post-race interview and give his best “aw, shucks.” And the fans ate it up like candy. Here was a guy who was driving and acting like Dale Earnhardt, completely shaking up the Cup scene while doing so.
Then came the Hail Melon at Martinsville Speedway, where Chastain rode the wall to pick up enough spots to make the Championship 4 in 2022. It went viral, reaching far beyond NASCAR’s circle, with many who didn’t even follow NASCAR learning the name Chastain. More and more fans were seen wearing Chastain merchandise, and he seemed like he had the potential to become the face of NASCAR. The next week, he followed it up by wrecking Elliott, again, and finishing runner-up in the championship.
Chastain continued the DGAF Tour into 2023, making more drivers mad while he was atop the point standings. He even landed a punch when confronted by Noah Gragson at Kansas Speedway, another moment that got a lot of traction for NASCAR.
All of the above was enough to get Anheuser-Busch’s attention, as the company announced mid-2023 it was leaving Stewart-Haas Racing to sponsor Chastain for multiple years.
But the very next week after the Gragson punch, May 14, 2023, the DGAF Tour came to an end. In the race that day at Darlington Raceway, Chastain wiped out Kyle Larson and himself while going for the win. After the race, Larson’s car owner Rick Hendrick voiced his displeasure with the way Chastain was racing every week, saying, “If you wreck us, you’re going to get it back.”
“I don’t care if he’s driving a Chevrolet if he wrecks our cars,” Hendrick said. “I don’t care, and I told Chevrolet that. I’m loyal to Chevrolet, but when somebody runs over us, then I expect my guys to hold their ground. I’m not going to ask them to yield just because of Chevrolet.”
It’s unknown what happened behind the scenes between Hendrick, Chevy, Trackhouse and Chastain, but from that point to now, Chastain has been a noticeably different driver on the track. He’s also gone from being a media darling, someone you could always count on for a good quote, to someone who only tends to do media when required. That’s when the pod person took over.
Yes, there have been moments of the old Chastain. He’s won three races since then, including the championship race at Phoenix Raceway in 2023, where he pissed eventual champion Blaney off by blocking him up and down the track.
But the same aggression hasn’t been visible on a weekly basis like it once was, and his results have suffered as a result. Chastain was ninth in points in 2023 with two wins. Last year, he only won one race and missed the playoffs entirely. The guy who once was a rising star has fizzled out into just another driver in the Cup Series who wins every now and again.
Two weeks ago at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Chastain was in the same position several victims of his had been in in the past, as he confronted Carson Hocevar on pit road after he didn’t like how the young driver raced him. However, he pulled Hocevar toward the grass and away from the media, then proceeded to not elaborate on the situation at all when asked about it.
It seemed like the Chastain of old had finally returned on Sunday (March 2) at Circuit of the Americas, when Ross made an overaggressive move into turn 1 on lap 1. Like old times, he sent Elliott spinning, and it caused a massive pileup behind them.
When Elliott finally caught back up to the No. 1 car late in the race, Chastain pulled over and out of the way of the No. 9 to let Elliott go by before he could retaliate. Suddenly, it was starting to feel like 2022 again. But that feeling quickly dissipated when media asked Chastain about the incident and he declined comment yet again.
Every person who bought Chastain gear back during the DGAF Tour would’ve loved to have heard what he had to say. NASCAR’s media and marketing would’ve done wonders with whatever he said. He even could’ve joked about going fishing with Elliott like he did when he and Martin Truex Jr. got into it at Dover Motor Speedway in 2022. But instead, nothing.
Quite frankly, what Chastain is doing now may earn him more respect among his peers, race team and Chevy, but it is bad for business all around. He could’ve continued to elevate NASCAR as he was doing. Instead he’s just there, taking up space. That’s not who the fans fell in love with, and it’s not who Anheuser-Busch wanted when it signed with him. And if you’re on the No. 1 team, you’ve got to be disappointed that you no longer have that driver who is doing everything to win for you, no matter who it rubs the wrong way.
Chastain has fallen into the hole of PR and political correctness. It’s a trap known all too well in NASCAR that nearly killed the series in the 2010s. Before, he came across as an amazing talent who a fan could have a Busch beer with after. Now, he’s coming across just like all the rich kids this watermelon farmer boy beat out to make it to Cup. It’s a shame, really.
This season, NASCAR has introduced a points system that monetarily rewards the drivers who do the most to promote the sport. With the way Chastain has been acting, I guess he doesn’t want or need that money anymore.
If you’re reading this thinking Chastain and his people won’t give Frontstretch the time of day after this slam piece, the joke’s on you. They already weren’t doing that.
NASCAR needs the old Chastain back some kind of bad. He can’t be content with Hocevar coming in and stealing his thunder. He can’t be content with running mediocre week in and week out and not being his true self in the public eye.
Wherever the real Ross Chastain has gone, I hope he comes back really soon. We’ve got to get rid of this pod person before it spreads throughout the whole garage to other drivers like in Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
Michael Massie joined Frontstretch in 2017 and has served as the Content Director since 2020.
Massie, a Richmond, Va., native, has covered NASCAR, IndyCar, SRX and the CARS Tour. Outside of motorsports, the Virginia Tech grad and Green Bay Packers minority owner can be seen cheering on his beloved Hokies and Packers.