Ross Chastain's timeline of controversies: Why NASCAR driver has become Cup Series' latest villain

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David Suggs
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Ross Chastain
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There's a new villain in the NASCAR Cup Series.

He's prickly as a pinecone, though he tries to disarm fans with an ever-mischievous smile. He's one of the series' best drivers but also one of its most controversial.

Ross Chastain has earned quite a reputation since making his Cup debut in 2017. The Trackhouse Racing driver has become a household name in stock car racing by pairing fast cars with an ultra-aggressive approach. He fell just short of a championship last year, finishing second in the final race.

He has become one of NASCAR's most polarizing personalities. Perhaps it's the watermelon tosses off his car's roof when he wins races. Or maybe it's his belligerence; Chastain has gotten into it with nearly every big name in NASCAR, from Denny Hamlin to Kyle Larson. He punched rookie Noah Gragson in the face.

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Love him or hate him, fans can't stop watching. Here's what you need to know about the Cup Series' most talked-about driver right now:

Who does Ross Chastain drive for?

Given his ebullient personality, Chastain needed a team capable of promoting his brand. Fortunately for him, he found that in Trackhouse Racing. It doesn't have the name recognition of Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing or Richard Childress Racing, but Trackhouse is an emerging force in the world of stock car racing. Owned by Miami's 13th-best rapper (Pitbull) and former Cup Series driver Justin Marks, Trackhouse has been a bulwark against blue-chip organizations like Hendrick.

Founded in 2021, the organization deploys two teams in the Cup Series: Chastain's in the No. 1 car and Daniel Suarez's in the No. 99 car.

Ross Chastain timeline of controversies

2015: Chastain introduced himself to the NASCAR world in the Xfinity Series. After finishing 32nd in the U.S. Cellular 250 at Iowa Speedway, he got into an altercation with Ryan Reed, who claimed that the watermelon farmer dumped him into the wall in Turns 3 and 4 on the final lap of the race. Chastain's excuse: it was a green-white-checkered finish.

2017: As Chastain's stock rose in the Xfinity Series, the carnage increased. There was a war of words between he and Jeremy Clements after they pair got into each other under caution at Bristol.

Chastain also showed that he wasn't afraid to duke it out. When he and Brendan Gaughan made contact at Texas. Gaughan grabbed Chastain's shoulder after the race, prompting Chastain to declare he was always going to defend himself if someone were to get physical with him. Keep that in mind for later.

2018: Another Xfinity Series race, another confrontation. Chastain ruffled feathers after putting Joey Gase into the grass during the last lap at Mid-Ohio. That set Gase off, with the No. 35 driver driving his car toward Chastain's No. 4 vehicle on pit road with people on the track. Gase attempted to accost Chastain but was met with brute force: one of Chastain's crew members drove him into the ground with a perfectly timed tackle.

Chastain followed up his dust-up with Gase by jostling with 2014 Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick at Darlington. During the final stage of an Xfinity race, Chastain dumped Harvick into the middle of the track while racing for the lead. Harvick was less than pleased; he claimed Chastain wouldn't get a chance to race in "really fast" cars again.

Chastain's playoff hopes that year came to an end at Dover, but he made sure to go out with a bang, sending Matt Tifft into Chase Briscoe in the final stage of the final race of the Round of 12. Tifft made sure to get payback, bumping into Chastain after the cooldown lap. He claimed his foot "slipped" off the clutch.

2019: Things were fairly quiet for Chastain this year, save for a collision with Justin Allgaier at Watkins Glen. Chastain spun Allgaier out at the end of Stage 1, a move that Allgaier thought was intentional. Allgaier responded in kind, sending Chastain into the tire barrier in the final moments of the race. Chastain's No. 4 car was totaled, Allgaier got his payback and the world got yet another look at Chastain's aggression.

2022: This was a breakout campaign for Chastain. Not only did he establish himself as one of the fastest drivers in the Cup Series, he also made headlines for his pugnacious style. In a short period of time, he went from afterthought to perhaps the most feared driver in the field. Granted, a lot of that apprehension came from his propensity for ramming into other drivers' vehicles.

He opened the year with a flourish, butting heads with Ryan Blaney and Martin Truex Jr. after contact at Richmond and Dover, respectively. Then came the real kindling for the inferno: his drive at Gateway.

Chastain was a wrecking ball that day, with not one, but two skirmishes. First, sent Denny Hamlin's No. 11 car careening into the wall. He followed that up by spinning out Chase Elliott, a maneuver that really put him in the crosshairs of his fellow Cup Series competitors.

Chastain was accountable post-race, but that didn't stop Elliott and Hamlin from getting their licks in.

Chastain then cemented his status as one of the Cup Series' top antagonists. And like any great villain, he made sure to leave a trail of wreckage in his wake.

His next victim was Austin Dillon, in a major wreck at Atlanta that sprung from a show of force by Chastain.

"Looks like we were just a casualty of Ross Chastain," Dillon said after being knocked out of the race.

Then came some more Hamlin-Chastain theatrics, this time at Pocono. Hamlin was the aggressor that day, getting next to Chastain's bumper. Chastain went twirling, Hamlin won the race, Chastain tallied a DNF and the racing world was abuzz.

MORE: Hamlin runs Chastain into wall at Pocono in apparent payback: 'What'd you want me to do?'

"I think that's something that has been owed to me for a few months now," Chastain said post-race.

Things went quiet on the Chastain front for a few weeks, until he made a detour at The Brickyard.

Chastain tried to cut through an access road on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. He was promptly handed a 30-second penalty. Then again, if you ain't cheating, you ain't trying. 

Chastain saved his best (worst?) for the playoffs. He pulled off one of the most dramatic moves in NASCAR history, his now-infamous "video game" gambit to snag the final spot in the Championship 4 from Hamlin. The now-illegal action represents one of the greatest moments in the sport's history, one that left even his fellow Cup Series drivers speechless.

That wasn't the only time Chastain got under a driver's skin in the postseason. In the championship race at Phoenix, he got into fellow Championship 4 driver Chase Elliott, sending Elliott's No. 9 Chevrolet spinning. Elliott finished 28th.

2023: If anyone thought Chastain was going to ease up on the throttle in 2023, they must have not seen him race. The No. 1 has been a lightning rod for criticism since the start of the season.

He helped precipitate Kyle Larson's massive wreck at Talladega in April, running into Noah Gragson. The move resulted in Larson's car looking like it had been struck by a cannonball. 

Then came the fisticuffs. Chastain hit Gragson with a sweet right hand at Kansas, putting an end to post-race proceedings. Gragson confronted Chastain after the two made contact in the AdventHealth 400.

MORE: Noah Gragson explains pit road fight with Ross Chastain

Shortly thereafter, Chastain made waves again at Darlington. He put himself and his fellow Chevrolet drivers at Hendrick Motorsports in increasingly awkward positions with his wheel work.

"Why did he run us right into the fence?" Larson's crew chief, Cliff Daniels, asked after Larson was knocked out the race.

"Make that three races he's taken us out of, Chevrolet. Three races," Daniels said. He was alluding to Talladega and an incident and Dover in addition to Darlington.

MORE: Kyle Larson 'really lucky' after hard wreck at Talladega

Hendrick Motorsports owner Rick Hendrick said after the race that Chastain can expect payback for his antics.

"He's got a lot of talent, but he's making a lot of enemies out here," Hendrick said.

A few days later, Chastain told reporters he had spoken with Hendrick and Larson.

"One day, I hope I'm able to laugh with him about it," Chastain said. "Look, it's still crazy for me that Rick Hendrick knows my name. Right now, it's for the wrong reasons, but seriously."

Love him, hate him or somewhere in between, people can't take their eyes off him. They keep talking about him. That can only be a good thing for NASCAR.

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David Suggs

David Suggs is a content producer at The Sporting News.