It was an all-to familiar scenario on Monday at Dover Motor Speedway: a move from Ross Chastain gone awry that resulted in multiple competitors’ races being affected negatively.
This time, it was Brennan Poole who bore the brunt of Chastain’s miscalculation, and Kyle Larson was also collected.
Chastain radioed to his No. 1 Trackhouse Racing team that he “didn’t mean to do that at all,” but it didn’t make Poole, who was making his first Cup Series start since 2020, feel any better.
“I feel like I just got ran over,” he told reporters at the infield care center. “As soon as he ran into me, I just kind of got shoved into the corner, like way too deep, and then I was just immediately turned around.”
This marks the second consecutive week Chastain has been involved in a controversial on-track incident. Last week at Talladega, he shot a gap underneath Noah Gragson on an overtime restart, sparking blowback from fans given his track record.
When it was confirmed that Chastain was the driver who made contact with Poole, he wasn’t surprised.
“Go figure,” he said. “I mean, just a joke. Eighty-something laps into a race? No reason. I was side-by-side with the No. 3 (Austin Dillon), just got to the outside and it’s not like I can go anywhere or give him any more room than what I had. He just ran me over. So, it’s kind of pathetic. I don’t know. It seems to be something Ross does a lot recently. Just uncalled for. It was my first time in a new Cup car, and 80 laps out. For what?”
Larson, who finished 42 laps down in 32nd, was understandably frustrated at how his day was impacted by something out of his control yet again.