Ross Chastain reacts to possible increase in horsepower for NASCAR Cup cars: 'Don't care'

While everyone in the NASCAR world has been asking for more horsepower in the Cup Series cars, Ross Chastain is shrugging it off. For him, it doesn’t matter how much power is in the cars, his job is to drive them and win races.

Ross Chastain is not exactly the guy who worries about parts, pieces, and the mechanical side of things. He sees himself as the driver, and that’s what he does best. Even so, Chastain is perhaps more dismissive of potential changes to the Next Gen car than most.

The Trackhouse Racing driver spoke to the media today at Nashville Superspeedway and was asked directly about comments Elton Sawyer has made regarding horsepower. At best, he doesn’t care; at worst, he is annoyed by the constant horsepower talk.

“Don’t care. Elton can sure talk about it, I don’t… I drive the car,” Ross Chastain said, slightly exasperated. “I don’t know what we need, what we should do, and I just don’t put any thought into it. Whatever power the car has on track, I’ll feel and I’ll react to. The Xfinity car has a carburetor, it has truck arms, has a narrower Goodyear Eagle. The Cup car has a transaxle, an independent rear suspension, and wider tires. So, whatever they want to do.

“They can accomplish the feat ‘more horsepower’ with either more horsepower in the engine. They could adapt a new tire, they could build a new tire that is narrower, less rubber on the road, they could change the suspension, they could do so many things aerodynamically to give us less grip if they want us off throttle. Sure, if Elton wants to talk about it, okay, whatever. I don’t… It’s like, I’m just going to go try to win the race. So, don’t care.”

Ross Chastain is coming off his big win in the Coca-Cola 600. He runs double duty this week with JR Motorsports in the Xfinity Series and his Trackhouse Racing team in the Cup Series. He is 8th in points and looking to move up the list.

Last season, Chastain ran well at Nashville. However, he was spun out by Kyle Larson late. During that race, he battled with Denny Hamlin. Then, everything devolved into chaos as we saw a five-overtime finish.

This week, Ross Chastain has two chances to win. He loves being in a race car, and you know that he will be aggressive no matter the series. Will one of these two remaining guitars end up in Chastain’s hands before the NASCAR weekend is over?