Ross Chastain and Daniel Suarez might have been teammates for four consecutive seasons, but that doesn’t mean they shared a friendly bond. And if the heated confrontation at the Pennzoil 400 is anything to go by, then that tension still lingers.

“In the moment, I definitely was hot and angry and would do things differently if I had time to think about it,” Chastain said, speaking to the media. “[Suarez] was too close, and just didn’t want to hear anything else he was saying because he wasn’t taking any accountability, and I wanted him to.

“I’ve known Daniel now for a long time and have lived it inside of our four walls, that there’s, in my opinion, not enough accountability, and there wasn’t post-race. And in the heat of the moment, I reacted definitely worse.”

The two drivers first made contact in the opening two laps of the race.

Then, much later in the race, Chastain began to run Suarez down as he struggled with the left-front tire on his #7 Chevrolet. The 33-year-old passed him on the outside with just over two laps remaining, and there was some very close racing as he went by. Chastain then appeared to give the Mexican driver the middle finger out the window as he drove away.

However, they did not end up in a major crash, as these battles usually do. In fact, both of them managed to finish the race, with Chastain bringing the #1 Trackhouse Racing car in 17 place. Meanwhile, Suarez finished behind him.

The cooldown lap only heated their battle further. Chastain seemed to be dooring Suarez down at the backstretch of the lap, and as they got out of the car, some words were being spewed out of both drivers’ mouths. After a little shoving and pushing, they went their ways, but their minds were still pretty much engaged.

“What happens on the race track happens on the race track,” Suarez remarked. “That’s racing, right? Everyone is going to get into it with another driver once in a while … that’s part of it. What I was actually pretty upset and disappointed is what happened afterwards.

“I have known Ross for a long time, and I have always known that him and I were very different. We’re very different kind of people. That’s okay, I will always respect him. But the kind of words that he said after the race is just completely unacceptable. That’s chicken stuff. That’s not good. I lost a lot of respect for him, as a person, because that’s just not good.

“It’s not a good look for him, it’s not a good look for the kind of person that he is, I think. And it was just a little bit sad, to be honest. I really wanted to — I was getting fired up to fight, but what was I going to gain? There’s nothing to gain with that. He’s not the kind of person I really want to fight. But yeah, just disappointed.”

While Ross Chastain did come out and accept that he should’ve been more thoughtful while all of it happened, it is quite apparent that he still wasn’t too happy with Daniel Suarez. For the fans, however, this is not new.

Daniel Suarez-Ross Chastain: The never-ending battle

Even as teammates, the duo seemed to have friction. One such incident happened at the Circuit of The Americas in 2023.

This was only their second season as teammates, but it got rough that day. During one of the restarts, Ross Chastain had bumped his car into Alex Bowman, who, in turn, made contact with Daniel Suarez on turn one. This is one of the most difficult corners to make properly on the current Cup calendar. Understandably, Suarez was not very happy with this. He took to the pit road to express his frustration, bumping his car into his challenger.

This got him fined $50,000, and he did not see it coming. But this was still a very mild incident, considering the history these two have shared.

Racing at Sonoma in 2025, Chastain seemed overly enthusiastic as he entered the final corner on the track. He then made contact with his teammate, who was running 14th. Suarez spun and dropped to 29th mid-race. And of course, he wasn’t happy with it.

“You better hope I don’t get to him today,” he warned his team on the radio, sending a strong message out to Chastain.

While Chastain’s admission shows a willingness to reflect, the continued criticism hints that tensions between the two are far from settled, setting the stage for a storyline that could carry well beyond this incident.