Ross Chastain recently joined Ryan Eversley and Sean Heckman on their Dinner With Racers podcast to discuss the deeper parts of his career and how they made him who he is today. About halfway through the episode, Chastain began discussing the early days of his career in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series with RBR Enterprises, Ricky Benton’s team in 2014. It was during this partnership that his career took a nosedive, and he got fired after just two races.

He first crashed the field at Daytona while trying to push Parker Kligerman. Then, during a bad weather delay in Martinsville, he convinced his team to tighten the truck instead of loosening it, which they believed cost them the race. “In their opinion, we would’ve won the race if we’d have done that. So, they fired me.” And the side-effect of that was a harsh phrase that may have seen the Melon Man leave the sport forever.

The gut-punch that almost ended it

At this time in Chastain’s life, his career was on the rocks, and to him it seemed like nothing could go right. He was paying the entire bill to be part of this Truck Series team, spending all the money he could muster to pay for it. His boss at the time, Ricky Benton, called him for a conference call shortly after a disagreement of differing opinions led to a bad result.

“We conference called in…Ricky fired me on the phone and, I’m with Trip and asked if he agreed, and he said yes,” Chastain said.

Trip Bruce was the team’s crew chief at the time, and Chastain emphasized that he felt the right way. He agrees that Bruce should have agreed with Ricky, since he was his boss. One of the podcast hosts then mentioned articles that came out around the time and how they used specific words that were gut-punching.

“The specific phrasing was that, ‘You need to stick to watermelons,'” the host said.

Those words hit hard for the 21-year-old Chastain at the time. He emphasized how they really packed a punch and that these kinds of words can stick with a person forever.

“Oh, it still rings in my head,” Chastain said.

After this, Chastain drove back to Morrisville, and since he was 21, he drank some beer, licked his wounds, and eventually realized it was time to get back up again. Not once during this time did he think of quitting; he just took the time necessary to regroup and figure out what was next.

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Unloading the watermelon celebration

Ever since his NASCAR O’Reily Auto Parts (Xfinity) Series days, Chastain has smashed a watermelon on the ground, grabbed a chunk, and bit into it on live TV when he wins. On the podcast, he finally unveiled his reason for doing so, which is different from what most actually think.

The ‘literal reason’ Chastain has for this celebration is quite literally to sell more watermelons. He uses his spotlight to showcase watermelons with the hope that more people will want to buy them.

“There’s no better time as a race car driver than when you win. Everybody’s watching. They’re all watching you get out of that car. Nobody looks away. Once you get out, I mean, it’s like driving a new car off the lot.” Chastain says, “It’s depreciating quickly and the TVs are turning off, but everybody waits and watches the burnout, and the driver get out, I think.”

Sometimes we think celebrations like these could be complex with some hidden meaning, but in Chastain’s case, it’s as simple as it looks like. A farmer selling his product on the highest stage.