NASCAR: Ross Chastain punches Noah Gragson as tensions boil over at Kansas Speedway

NASCAR drivers Ross Chastain and Noah Gragson had a post-race bust-up Sunday at Kansas Speedway after Denny Hamlin bowled Kyle Larson for first place to claim the $7.5 million prize pool.

Chastain, who has drawn the ire of many drivers this season with his aggressiveness on track, pinned Gragson into the wall with some 60 laps to go, forcing him to spin, although the latter did not expect the Trackhouse Racing team to driver would make it. his displeasure afterwards known.

Gragson put his hands on Chastain, who responded with a sweeping right hook that seemed to connect. Gragson tried to return the punch, but he was pulled away by safety and NASCAR officials.

“I’m fed up,” Gragson said of Chastain’s driving. ‘That man meets everyone. When you have guys like Chase Elliott and other guys telling you to beat him, everyone’s just sick of him.”

Chastain accepted some of the blame for the spin, but didn’t have much to say about the blow.

Ross Chastain and Noah Gragson had a post-race bust-up at Kansas Speedway on Sunday

“I must have lost four,” Chastain said. “Noah and I have a similar attitude on the track. We train together, we prepare together, we know everything about each other. I must have pushed him out of the four.”

“A very big man once told me that we have a ‘no push policy’ here at Trackhouse,” he added.

By the end of Sunday’s race – the 15th since the start of the new NASCAR season in February – Chastain finished fifth, while Gragson finished 29th.

Hamlin’s win ended a 33-win drought for the Joe Gibbs Racing driver stretching back to last year’s Coca-Cola 600. NASCAR’s top series.

Larson led in the closing laps on the hottest day of racing of the season – 28 degrees – but Hamlin got the upper hand by spending about 30 laps chasing his rival. Riding alongside Larson on the final circuit, he made light contact with the Hendricks motorsport drivetrain before crashing into the outside wall, giving himself a clear path to the finish.

Denny Hamlin came out on top at Kansas to end his 33-race winless drought on Sunday

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver (11) won over Kyle Larson for first place to claim the $7.5 million prize pool

‘I stood aside. He was sideways. I knew it would be close to getting me out,’ Hamlin said. “I was grinding his left side, trying to keep the lateral draft as much as possible. It’s such a super sensitive part and I hooked it to the end.”

Hamlin added that he planned to talk to Larson about the finish at some point.

“I was really loose,” Larson said. “He was able to finally get my insides of two. It looked like he was aggressively drafting me. I don’t know if he got me out of the way in the end, but he turned me against the outside wall and he won.’

Next up is ‘Throwback Weekend’ in Darlington, South Carolina on May 14, and it’s increasingly becoming a family affair.

Elliott’s No. 9 car for Hendrick Motorsports will look like his father Bill Elliott’s 2003 car; Ryan Blaney’s No. 12 will pay homage to dad Dave Blaney’s old sprint car; and Harrison Burton’s No. 21 will look like Dad Jeff Burton’s old livery.