Four years as teammates doesn’t always translate to friendship. For Daniel Suarez and Ross Chastain, the partnership at Trackhouse Racing may be over, but the tension clearly isn’t. What began as a routine mid-pack battle at the Pennzoil 400 this afternoon turned into a heated confrontation after the race, with Suarez openly questioning the sincerity of his ex-teammate.

“I was having a conversation, and he was all spit out. He just said something,” the Mexican driver explained post-race. “I mean, for some reason, our relationship has always been very weird, almost like it’s a little bit two-faced, for some reason. And today, I actually saw what I thought he had in his mind for a while. But I mean, I don’t have any hard feelings toward anyone.”

The flashpoint came late in the race when both drivers found themselves fighting around the edge of the top 20. Suarez, now driving the No. 7 for Spire Motorsports, was locked in a tight battle for 17th with Chastain.

With only a few laps remaining, Chastain moved to the outside and edged past his former teammate in a close, aggressive exchange. As he completed the pass, the Trackhouse Racing driver appeared to make a gesture out of the window towards Suarez, adding another layer of tension to the moment.

The race itself ended without major damage. Chastain crossed the line in 17th, while Suarez followed right behind in 18th, but the situation escalated on the cooldown lap. The Mexican pulled up alongside the No. 1 car, and what looked like a brief exchange quickly turned physical when Chastain nudged him down the backstretch.

The two continued side-by-side toward pit road before parking, where both drivers climbed out of their cars and confronted each other next to Chastain’s machine. Words were exchanged, hands briefly went up, and a short shove broke out before others stepped in to separate them.

For anyone who followed their time together at Trackhouse, the friction wasn’t entirely surprising. The duo had already experienced several tense moments during their years as teammates.

One of the most notable came at COTA in 2024, where the now Spire Motorsports driver confronted Chastain after late-race contact and even bumped him on the cooldown lap before addressing him in the pits. The rivalry resurfaced again at Sonoma last season when Chastain spun Suarez in the tight hairpin.

Now racing for different organizations, the competitive edge between them appears far from settled. But the irony of Suarez running into his past teammates isn’t lost. At the Daytona 500, the 34-year-old had a run-in with Shane Van Gisbergen.

Moreover, Suarez also locked horns with Trackhouse Racing’s newest rookie, Connor Zilisch, at COTA two weeks ago. Sunday’s incident only peeled back the curtain on a relationship with Chastain that, as Suarez himself suggested, may have been complicated long before they stopped sharing the same garage.

However, the frustration on Chastain’s part wasn’t just because of the run-in with Suarez; it started way before.

Ross Chastain faces a difficult day at Las Vegas

For Ross Chastain, the day at Las Vegas Motor Speedway began with promise but gradually slipped away as the reason unfolded. Starting from eighth on the grid, the Trackhouse Racing driver looked set for a solid run early.

However, maintaining track position proved difficult, and he slowly began sliding backwards to the field as it went on. By the time the opening stage had played out, the No. 1 car had dropped down the order, eventually settling around 18th place.

The struggles continued into the second stage, where Chastain slipped another spot to 19, finding it difficult to regain the momentum he had shown at Saturday’s qualifying. While the team managed to stabilize things during the closing runs, the lost ground early on proved hard to recover.

In the end, Chastain salvaged his evening with a mid-pack finish in 17th place after a challenging afternoon. Five races into the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season, and he now sits 20th in the driver’s standings with 94 points, having recorded one top five and one top 10 finish so far.

While the start of the year has shown flashes of promise, the Las Vegas outing highlights just how tough it can be to convert a strong position into a strong result.