Chase Briscoe, Tyler Reddick and Ross Chastain were all battling it out for their debut career NASCAR Cup Series victory on Sunday at Phoenix Raceway.
All three drivers had a rather equal chance for their first win on Lap 309 of 312 as they held the front spots after the final restart of the day.
Ross Chastain and Tyler Reddick are among the most aggressive Cup Series drivers in the field each and every race weekend, and both are really starting to show what it takes to get victory lane in the Cup Series.
Following the race at Phoenix Raceway Chastain was being interviewed when Reddick sarcastically bump into the back of Ross Chastain joking with about the final restart.
“I need a better car… f***ing terrible.” – Bubba pissed with the performance of his Toyota Camry at Phoenix
Chastain and Tyler Reddick share a laugh postrace
Ross Chastain and Tyler Reddick share a laugh postrace as they talk about the late restarts at Phoenix: pic.twitter.com/b16GcDnFki
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) March 14, 2022
“Constant debate in my head,” Chastain said. “Coming to the restart, when we put those tires on after we all pitted. Chase and I drove down into [turn] 1, I got inside of him and I drove way deeper than I meant to. But I took it, and almost had him clear, but it was just chattering all four tires. I ran him all the way to the wall on the exit of [turn] 2.
Besides wrecking both of us, I couldn’t have done anymore speed from the start finish line to the exit of turn 2. That was kind of the defining moment of winning the race for us.”
Brad Keselowski to Honor Mark Martin by running his 2004 paint scheme at Darlington
While Both Chastain and Reddick couldn’t get by Chase Briscoe, they left feeling good with their results second and third respectively.
How hard and how much contact was Ross Chastain willing to have there at the end? He describes his philosophy on those final restarts: pic.twitter.com/ZBGNTKiAcZ
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) March 14, 2022