Scuffle Ensues Following Texas Xfinity Race

NASCAR Xfinity Series drivers Brendan Gaughan and Ross Chastain battled on the race track during Saturday night’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 at Texas Motor Speedway. Then, afterwards, they battled in the garage area.

The mess all started mid-race when the two were battling for position and contact was made in turn four. Chastain found himself turned around and sliding through the grass on the front stretch. Gaughan motored on. Gaughan ended up finishing the race in 17^th position while Chastain checked out in the 19^th position.

After the race the non-playoff cars are staged behind Victory Lane for technical inspection. Chastain claims that Gaughan approached him as he was climbing from his Chevrolet racer; “I was just getting out of the car and was sitting on the door and was getting ready to swing my legs out and there he (Gaughan) was,” said Chastain, “He just came right at me with his guys. There were just swings from that point on.’’

Chastain continued, “there were no cameras (of the incident) … it would make me look better if there was, but, unfortunately, I’m sure there wasn’t for the start. Some derogatory things were said beyond just cuss words.’’

As far as the on-track situation that led to the post-race melee Chastain described his side of the story, “There was a slow car we were passing on the backstretch and (Gaughan) tried to split the middle, I wasn’t going to let him because it’s so much track position, there was clean track in front of us. We stayed side-by-side into (Turn) 3. I tried to arc from the bottom, and he tried to pinch me. I got really loose, saved it. All good. From then on, he was out to wreck me. My spotter could tell. (Gaughan) tried to get me in (Turns) 1 and 2.

“That’s just not acceptable. The speeds we’re going, we’ve seen guys get upside down in the catch fence on purpose before. I do not want to collect on my life insurance policy at 24 years old. That was my biggest thing in the (NASCAR) trailer, that I was upset with that needed to be taken care of,” Chastain concluded.

Gaughan declined comment following his departure from the NASCAR Xfinity Series hauler.