Ross Chastain on his NASCAR year "stranger than fiction"

The driver whose roller-coaster ride has captivated NASCAR over the past year on what the mood was like at the Niece Motorsports shop after the Iowa disqualification (2:30); why a $50,000 loss led to a lot of “very bone-jarring words” (4:30); the case for the punishment exceeding the crime (6:00); a plea for NASCAR to “quit listening to everybody” (7:30); trying to encapsulate the “stranger than fiction” nature of the past year for Ross Chastain (9:30); on whether he leans on his experience in overcoming challenges (11:45); the praise from veteran Cup drivers for a driver who hasn’t always made friends on the track (13:45); why it stung even more that he lost the Iowa win to Brett Moffitt, who has a budding rivalry with Chastain (15:30); the decision to switch to running full time in the truck series and Niece’s emergence as championship contender (18:00); what team owner Al Niece is like (20:30); how his Cup (Premium Motorsports) and Xfinity (Kaulig and JD Motorsports) were impacted by his commitment to Niece (23:00); “there was a while there where every race team I drove for was mad at me” (24:30): how the logistics work of racing in so many series (sometimes in separate states on consecutive days) (26:30); the saving grace of charter flights (29:00); the advantages to racing as much as possible (30:30); how often he retreats to the solace of his family’s watermelon farm (32:30); the support of the watermelon industry in Chastain’s career (34:30); “I am falling behind in a lot of aspects of people my age who go into the industry” (36:00); a funny story about Elliott Sadler and getting his first victory (37:30); where Chastain feels like his career stands six months after the stunning loss of his Xfinity ride at Ganassi (38:00).

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