Ross Chastain calls Top 5 finish at Sonoma 'confusing' after late tangle with Kyle Busch

Ross Chastain captured a top-five finish at Sonoma Raceway, but the prevailing story pertaining to the No. 1 wheelman has to do with a last-lap tangle involving himself and Kyle Busch.

On the final lap of the Toyota/Save Mart 350, the No. 1 wheelman seemingly spun Busch out, causing some discussion of whether or not Chastain purposefully moved the two-time Cup Series champion. Busch certainly believes so, but Chastain instead opted to call the entire situation “confusing” after the race.

“Confusing. I’m not sure how the No. 5 (Kyle Larson) won, or how I got back to fifth. I don’t really know. I don’t now how the lap times worked out,” Chastain said, via NBC Sports’ Dustin Long. “I didn’t feel very good in the second or third set of tires for awhile, but it worked out somehow to get back up here.

“I’m super proud of the effort by this No. 1 Kubota Chevy team. It’s so good to be in a fast race car. I’m in them most weeks, but to be able to put it together and finish fifth is really, really rewarding.”

Evidently, Chastain doesn’t want the incident with Busch to overshadow a much-needed solid run, but it’s hard not to talk about the kerfuffle between the two drivers. Still, Chastain dove a little deeper on the matter, trying to explain what happened on the final lap.

“I feel like the first or second lap of the race, and the last lap, were the most exciting, and the rest were just making lap times, aside from some restarts,” Chastain stated, via a conversation with NASCAR’s Alex Weaver. “It just feels so good to be back passing cars, and being fast, and being able to be aggressive and maintaining speed doing it. So, I’m pretty confused on how the strategy worked out. I don’t really know how the No. 5 won and I finished fifth, but I’m not sure what happened with the No. 8 either, I’ll be honest.

“I’m pretty confused about most things here, but he checked up down into 4A. I popped out to not hit him, and then I locked up, going in there, into his right. So definitely not trying to run into him, and then get run into by the No. 9 for a spot in 11. So, a lot of bowties running together today. Glad one of them got the win.”

It remains to be seen how Kyle Busch reacts to the scenario, but Ross Chastain might sweat a little more whenever the No. 8 is in his rear-view mirror over the course of the summer. We’ll see if revenge is on the table for Busch.