NASCAR pit road confrontation turns physical as Chastain punches Gragson

After brushing the wall, Gragson immediately drove down to the bottom of the oval track and delivered a retributive bump on Chastain’s car, but the animosity between the two did not end there.

Following the race, the Fox Sports 1 broadcast was in the middle of interviewing runner-up driver Kyle Larson when the camera cut to the burgeoning pit road altercation.

Gragson had approached Chastain angrily before the two exchanged words. Gragson then grabbed Chastain and pushed him several times, and Chastain responded with a solid right hook that landed squarely on his rival's chin.

“I definitely crowded him up off of (Turn) 4 and he took a swipe at us in (Turn) 3 and then he came down (on pit road) and grabbed ahold of me and a very big man once told me we have a no-push policy here at Trackhouse” Chastain told reporters after the altercation

Gragson tried to answer with a return punch of his own, but NASCAR officials immediately intervened and pulled the two drivers apart. After the incident, Gragson explained what motivated him to get in Chastain’s face and grab him.

“Nobody confronts the guy… I'm sick and tired of it," Gragson said of Chastain’s on-track behaviour. "The guy runs into everyone. When you have guys like Chase Elliott and other guys telling you to beat his a**, everyone is just sick of him."

This was not the first racing incident and off-track aggression between Gragson and Chastain. Just two weeks earlier at the Talladega race, Chastain ran into the side of Gragson’s bumper, effectively issuing a pit manoeuvre which sent both drivers into the wall.

Chastain referenced this after the recent Kansas fight, saying “(Gragson) did the same thing at Talladega, complained and nothing happened, but, that wasn’t the first time he’s approached me like that”.

While the two do not belong to the same driving organisation, each driver does drive under the Chevrolet umbrella and are expected to work together for the betterment of the manufacturer. Time will tell if relations can improve, or if one of the drivers will find a new home with Toyota or Ford. Considering Chastain is leading all drivers in points, Chevrolet will not want to part ways with him. 

Ross Chastain finished 5th, and Noah Gragson finished 29th in a field of 36 cars. Five laps after the Chastain-Gragson incident, Gragson spun out and finished several laps behind the race-winner, Denny Hamlin.