If there was one thing that the Suarez-Chastain drama did at Vegas, it reminded everyone of the old NASCAR, where rivalries were not dealt with polite talks, but with raw emotion spilling onto the track. Unlike many, it was exactly the kind of fire that a veteran like Mike Skinner couldn’t help but appreciate.

Mike Skinner unravels his experience to support confrontation

In a recent interview with Peter Stratta on X, Skinner let his feelings be known about the recent confrontation and brought forth one of his experiences during his racing career. Speaking about how he once had to pay $10,000, here’s what Skinner said:

“I paid a bunch of fines. I remember one year, going to Homestead, they called in the trailer and they said, hey, we need to get $10,000 from you. Okay. For what? You know for what? It’s the fight there at Phoenix last race, and yeah, I said he shouldn’t have done what he did, or maybe I apologize for what I did and I said okay.”

Following this, Skinner, who has 286 Cup Series races to his name and was the 1995 NASCAR SuperTruck Series champion, went on with the ordeal. He explained that NASCAR wanted him to pay the fine and then allowed him to race. By bringing up his experience, Mike Skinner stated that he was happy that drivers have continued to show emotions and passion.

“I said get up with it next week, and he said no, you don’t understand, you don’t get to practice, you don’t get to the racetrack, before you give us that ten grand. So I had to pay a fine just to go and get to the race. But when talking about the other day, it’s exciting. And you don’t want the sport to get vanilla. NASCAR has got to go deep down inside life when this happens, but they can’t endorse it, they can’t and say it’s okay, cause it’s not. And it’s really, really good to see passion back in the sport,” he further added.

Daniel Suarez confronted Ross Chastain at the end of the Las Vegas race owing to an on-track dispute. Chastain, who doorslammed Suarez during the race, made the latter furious, and as a result, the Spire driver went to confront his former teammate.

However, the confrontation soon turned into a physical altercation where they started shoving each other, with Chastain uttering sentences like “get out of here” and “you were fired.” Suarez, however, remained comparatively calmer.

Ross Chastain, recalling the incident, admitted that he would have done it differently if given the chance. Daniel Suarez, however, would always remain calm and avoid physical altercation for one reason.

Daniel Suarez avoids Las Vegas altercation for $50,000

Speaking about the confrontation, Daniel Suarez revealed that he de-escalated the situation with Ross Chastain and did not go for the physical altercation as he wanted to avoid another $50,000 fine. Back in 2023, NASCAR fined Suarez $50,000 over behavioral issues, and he did not want a repeat of the same.

“To punch him and put him on the ground, it was going to cost me $50,000,” Suarez said. “The sponsors never like that. The sponsors like exposure, but they don’t like bad media and bad PR. If I want to fight Ross, and he knows this, he’s not going to last five seconds. So, what am I going to gain from that?”

As Suarez revealed, the sponsors indeed would not have wanted a negative reaction involving their driver. Negative or positive, the fans and experts were shocked by how Ross Chastain and Daniel Suarez continued to have animosity despite being teammates for years.