Daniel Suarez had a skirmish with his former teammate Ross Chastain at Las Vegas, where contact on track spilled over into a push on pit road at the end of the race. It was not the first time the two crossed paths; this time, however, Suarez chose to explain his side of the story on the latest episode of his The Long Run VLOG on YouTube.
While many fans took the whole clash as Suarez’s way of expressing displeasure over his exit from Trackhouse Racing last season, the No. 7 driver has waved that off.
In his telling, there is no score to settle, no long game at play. He’s just racing, which, inconveniently, involves cars being very close to each other at high speed.
Addressing everything that happened during the race, Suarez rewound the race to the start and stated that the first nudge came from Chastain on Lap 1, when the field bunched up and the two made light contact, something he treated as just a racing incident.
Suarez believed that throughout the run, he held the upper hand and spent much of the race ahead of Chastain, passing him in several stretches, pushing back against the idea that he was holding up a faster car.
The race then took a turn in the closing laps. Suarez said he began to deal with an issue on the left-front tire just as Chastain closed in. Trying to hold his ground, his No. 7 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 lost grip, drifted up the track, and made contact with Chastain’s No. 1 Chevy.
Suarez said he tried to clear the air on the cool-down lap, pulling alongside to signal an apology. Even during his vlog, Suarez admitted his fault, saying, “I go next to him and give him the hand, ‘My bad, peace, apologize for that. I got loose, and we touched a little bit.”
Chastain, however, didn’t shrug it off as he stayed hot and made contact again. That, for Suarez, crossed a line, reasoning that, by then, drivers often loosen their belts, and any hit carries more risk than reward.
Ultimatley, Chastain finished 17th, while Suarez ended his race just behind the Trackhouse Racing driver in 18th. What stuck with him the most, however, were the words that followed.
Suarez said, “What I was actually pretty upset and disappointed is what happened afterwards. I have known Ross for a long time. And I have always known that him and I were very different. We’re very different kinds of people. Well, that’s okay. I always respect him. But the kind of words that he said after the race are just completely unacceptable.”
He went further, stating:
“That’s chicken stuff. That’s not good. I lost a lot of respect for him as a person. Because that’s just not good, it’s not a good look for him. And it was just a little bit sad, to be honest. I was getting fired up to fight, but what I was going to gain, I mean, there is nothing to gain with that, he’s not the kind of person I really want to fight.” — Daniel Suarez
When the Spire driver raised the issue of the contact on the cool-down lap during their pit road conversation, Chastain first denied it, then brushed it off by saying Suarez had been alongside him.
But, as Suarez mentioned, “I was giving you the hand that I apologize for what happened three laps before.”
However, the No. 7 driver concluded that contact during a race is part of the sport, drivers trade paint and move on. What came after the flag, the hit on the cool-down lap, and the exchange that followed, disappointed him the most.
In the closing laps at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Chastain and Suarez found themselves locked in a scrap for 17th place, trading inches as the laps wound down.
Chastain made his move on the outside and got the job done, crossing the line in 17th, with Suarez tucked in behind in 18th.
But then, on the cool-down lap, Suarez drew alongside, and the two cars made contact before rolling toward pit road. Once parked, both drivers stepped out and went nose to nose.
Words flew, a shove followed, and crew members stepped in before matters could spill further.
After the race, Suarez did not bite his tongue and shared his displeasure with Chastain’s antics, saying, “For some reason, our relationship has always been very weird. Almost like a little bit of two-faced of his part for some reason. And today I saw actually what I thought he had in his mind for a while.”
For his part, what Chastain exactly said to Suarez on track is unknown, though fans have their suspiscious that it lent itself towards Suarez’s exit from Trackhouse.
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