Breaking It Down: Ross Chastain adds more enemies with his reckless abandon

While seemingly truly apologetic for his run-ins with Denny Hamlin and Chase Elliott in Sunday's race, Chastain likely put a target on his back for his overaggressive style

Throughout his career, Ross Chastain has made it clear that he races to win, not to make friends.

However, Chastain’s aggression in Sunday’s Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway went too far, which likely earned him a number of enemies moving forward.

Chastain’s chain of run-ins started on Lap 64 when he turned Denny Hamlin around. After running behind Hamlin for multiple laps, Chastain drove notably harder into the corner and punted Hamlin into the wall.

The hard-hit effectively ruined any chances Hamlin had at having a competitive run, so he shifted his focus towards getting revenge on Chastain.

Hamlin did everything he could to get retribution, going as far as to block Chastain all the way down to the apron. Even after Chastain barely escaped Hamlin’s antics, Hamlin still pressed the issue and tried to get Chastain yet again when the two re-encountered each other.

Chastain was clearly afraid to pass Hamlin as he sat behind Hamlin's markedly slower car for multiple laps, even as Hamlin tried to let Chastain by him (for obvious reasons).

The inverted cat-and-mouse game between the two drivers following Hamlin’s unsuccessful attempts to wreck Chastain made Hamlin’s intentions glaringly obvious to NASCAR, who issued a warning to Hamlin, telling him to knock it off.

This warning was the only thing that could have saved Chastain from an inevitable serving of revenge, but he was far from off the hook in the grand scheme of things. In fact, he was just getting started with making enemies for the day.

Denny Hamlin said when he pays back Ross Chastain, it will be meaningful and when he least expects it, that you have to “fence these guys hard” to get their attention.

More of what Hamlin said about Chastain after Gateway: pic.twitter.com/B0SCkCct6r

— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) June 5, 2022

Up next on Chastain’s hit list was Chase Elliott. On Lap 102, shortly after a restart, Chastain spun Elliott around when he tried to squeeze into a quickly shrinking hole coming off of Turn 4.

Again, Chastain’s move was one of poor judgment as he tried to force a three-wide situation on the corner exit. Luckily for Elliott, the tightly packed field behind him managed to avoid his spinning car, but his troubles with Chastain were not over yet.

Following the spin, the three cars of Hamlin, Elliott, and Chastain all restarted at the back of the pack due to repairs during the caution. As soon as he was within striking distance, Elliott wasted no time getting back at Chastain as he sent him up and out of the groove.

Then, just like clockwork Hamlin came to finish the tag team as he doored Chastain right as he came back into the groove.

Unfortunately for the disgruntled drivers, Chastain sustained minimal damage and continued to work his way back through the field while they struggled to maintain a competitive speed.

As Chastain worked his way back up following his double-dose of vengeance, he seemed to try and prevent any retaliation from Elliott by forcing him into yet another three-wide situation with Corey Lajoie and B.J. Mcleod.

The move triggered a chain reaction that nearly sent Elliott around again and earned Chastain yet another enemy in Mcleod.

Over the radio, Mcleod remarked, “They’re out here trying to wreck each other and messing other people up. I know we’re not racing for fifth, but we are racing. They almost cost us a car.”

To classify Chastain’s driving on the track as aggressive would be too kind of a term. Rather, Chastain drove with a reckless abandon that failed to respect his competition and in turn, nullified multiple drivers' chances at a quality run.

Despite all the chaos, Chastain still salvaged a quality day as he went home in eighth. As for Elliott and Hamlin, they finished a disappointing 21st and 34th, respectively.

Even on the last lap, Chastain could be seen banging on the door of Erik Jones as they jockeyed for the seventh position, which made it seem as though he had no regrets for his actions throughout the race.

None of this seemed uncharacteristic for Chastain, yet he finally crossed a line that he has always toyed with throughout his career. After years of uncertainty and adversity, Chastain has finally secured himself a competitive Cup Series ride at Trackhouse Racing and he races like he never wants to give it up.

With that approach, Chastain has quickly built a reputation for unapologetically doing whatever it takes to compete. He famously punted AJ Allmendinger out of the way for his first career win earlier this year at Circuit of the Americas, and has had his fair share of run-ins before and after that have made him unpopular amongst his peers.

Yet, unlike most of his other incidents throughout the season, Chastain appeared visibly ashamed after Sunday's race.

“It was just terrible driving," he self-analyzed his performance. "It’s one thing to do it once, but I just kept driving into guys. At this level, I’m supposed to be better than that.

"I owe half of the field an apology. Words aren’t going to fix it, so I’ll have to pay for it on the track. I almost did today, and I deserve everything that they do. I can’t believe I continued to make those same mistakes; overdrive the corners and drive into guys. I had time under caution to get reset, and we’d go green, and I would drive into somebody. Terrible.”

If Chastain's remarks are any indication, he knows as well as everyone else does that an apology does not fix a fellow driver’s ruined day and that he has some serious payback coming his way in the future. That being said, Chastain said the right things and handled a potentially volatile situation maturely.

As for Hamlin, he had no intentions of forgetting about today anytime soon.

“it takes responsibility, but ultimately it ruined our day," Hamlin said. "We all have to learn the hard way and we’ve all had it come back around on us. (Chastain) will be no different.”

Hamlin’s approach is exactly how motorsports incidents have policed themselves for years. Despite how much accountability Chastain took after the race, there is no changing the fact that he ruined other driver’s days.

With that, he has to be ready for them to ruin his. He put the ball in their court, and now he’s a sitting duck to whichever way Hamlin, Elliott or others he's had run-ins decide to serve their revenge.

Maybe this is a turning point for Chastain and his aggressive driving, or perhaps he’ll continue to go all-out for the sake of competing.

Either way, Sunday was certainly a wake-up call for Chastain. While it’s hard to tell when or where he will face the consequences of his actions, suffice to say fans should pay close attention any time the No. 1 gets around the No. 11 or No. 9 in the coming weeks.