No love lost between former teammates Suarez and Chastain

Ross Chastain and Daniel Suarez are not friendly, and it’s not a new development, given that the latter is no longer driving for Trackhouse Racing.

“We don’t get along, and that goes back longer than this weekend,” Chastain said on Tuesday afternoon. “We got through our time together as teammates, but I don’t think it’s bad that I don’t get along with everybody.”

Chastain and Suarez were teammates from 2022 to 2025 while driving for Justin Marks. Suarez, however, now drives for Spire Motorsports, and after he had contact with other former teammates in the first few weeks of the season, Chastain became the latest.

“A lot of people think I’m trying to target everyone at Trackhouse,” Suarez said in his latest Vlog posted on YouTube. “I’m not even thinking about that.”

The issues with Chastain started on the second lap of the race in Las Vegas on Sunday, as Suarez showed through in-camera footage in his Vlog. The two had contact while racing in a three-wide situation going into Turn 1, which Suarez felt was a racing incident, even though he was crowded by Chastain. Then, late in the race, there was another near-miss with Suarez coming off the corner with Chastain to his outside, and Chastain giving Suarez the middle finger.

“He was passing me, and I got loose and crowded him,” Suarez said. “We didn’t touch. He didn’t hit. Nobody crashed. Nobody lost a position. Everything was fine. But obviously, he was mad. Understandable. A little mad, but that’s fine. He gave me the finger for a lap or half a lap, which I think is a little bit unnecessary, but that’s him. That’s fine.

“After the race, everyone has cooled down two laps later, and I go next to him and give him a hand like, ‘OK. My bad. Peace.’ Apologize for that. … And he was just super mad. He hit me on the cool-down lap, which I think is super unacceptable because at that point, we are loosening our belts and things.”

Suarez was the most upset and disappointed by what happened on pit road. He had walked to Chastain’s car, parked behind him, to talk, but it ended with Chastain shoving Suarez away.

“I have known Ross for a long time, and I have always known that him and I are very different,” Suarez said. “We’re very different kinds of people. But that’s OK. I have always respected him. But the kind of words he said after the race is completely unacceptable. That’s chicken stuff. That’s not good. I lost a lot of respect for him as a person because that’s not good. It’s not a good look for him. It’s not a good look for the kind of person he is.

“It was just a little bit sad, to be honest. I was getting fired up to fight, but what was I going to gain? There is nothing to gain with that. He’s not the kind of person I really want to fight. But just disappointed.”

Chastain admitted that he was hot and angry, and in hindsight would have done things differently if he had time to think it through. For instance, he would not have swerved into Suarez during the cool-down lap, and he wouldn’t have shoved him.

“I just was over the conversation that he was trying to have, wanted him to leave, asked him to leave, and he didn’t leave, and I wanted him to back up,” Chastain said. “He was too close, and I just didn’t want to hear anything else he was saying because he wasn’t taking any accountability, and I wanted him to.”

In the immediate aftermath of the race, Chastain had no comment for the media in Las Vegas. On Tuesday, he was doing media availability and had reviewed the footage and the incident, which allowed him to explain his perspective. Chastain also said he and Suarez have been playing phone tag, but he has sent him his thoughts via text.

“I don’t agree with the way he handles things,” Chastain said, “and that’s what made me mad on pit road, was just that there was no accountability. There was 0% on his side, across not just this weekend. It’s a bigger thing, and it just all boiled up quickly for me, and we’ll work to handle that better. I just saw red in the moment, and it’s the accountability thing. I just needed a little slice of responsibility from him, and there’s always a reason why it wasn’t his fault.”