The recently concluded Las Vegas Cup Series will not just be remembered for Denny Hamlin’s redemption, but also for Daniel Suárez’s confrontation with his former teammate, Ross Chastain. Stemming from an on-track incident, both almost had a physical altercation on the front stretch, but Suárez remained calm, citing a NASCAR rule, a move that a leading NASCAR executive, Brad Moran, backed.
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NASCAR boss’s clarification on Las Vegas incident
In a recent interview with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Moran opened up about the incident and compared it with hockey. Drawing a parallel, Moran, who is the Cup Series managing director, stated that in hockey, there are instances of physical confrontation, but it should not be in racing.
“I mean, you got concrete all around you, obviously, cement. Some of the drivers are quite different in size, so we can’t,” Moran said. “I kid when I say played a lot of hockey and certain things were allowed, but mainly in hockey games, the boys that are fighting, want to fight, and you have to be cautious of that. These are professional athletes, and we protect our drivers.”
Following this, the NASCAR executive shed light on how the drivers can share their raw emotions during and after the race, and it should not be a bad thing for “everyone” witnessing. Here’s what Moran added further:
“So every situation is different, but the raw emotion, and we really don’t want to hold all that back. I mean, the drivers have the right to share their thoughts and feelings with each other. And truthfully, if everybody gets to witness some of that, I don’t think it’s the worst thing that could happen.”
He tried his best, godbless, but Brad Moran didn’t exactly help NASCAR’s official no fighting policy with this explanation, did he? pic.twitter.com/ujdy3kjhED
— Matt Weaver (@MattWeaverRA) March 18, 2026
Notably, Moran’s comment comes after Suárez approached Chastain to “talk” about their racing incident during the Pennzoil 400 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. During the race, Chastain doorslammed Suárez, to which the latter had a reply when they were on pit road.
As the race concluded, Suárez got out of his car to confront Chastain, and the exchange heated up, which lasted for nearly 30 seconds. As Chastain shoved Suárez, saying phrases like “Get out of here” and “you were fired,” the NASCAR officials stepped in to remove them.
Although Suárez did not react at the time, he later said that he would have kicked Ross Chastain’s b*tt when confronted physically, but did not choose to do so because of NASCAR’s $50,000 penalty. While Chastain did not comment on it immediately, he indeed had an answer.
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Ross Chastain remarked on Las Vegas incident with Daniel Suárez
Ross Chastain opened up about his post-race confrontation with Daniel Suárez during last week’s Cup Series race. Addressing how he was angry with his former teammate, here’s what the #1 driver said:
“In the moment, I definitely was hot and angry and would do things different if I had time to think about it. Definitely would not have swerved into [Daniel Suárez] after the race. I didn’t mean to. I would do that different if I could go back, and then I wouldn’t shove him, for sure.
“I just was over the conversation that he was trying to have, wanted him to leave, asked him to leave, and he didn’t leave, and wanted him to back up. 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.”
NASCAR took cognizance of the incident but did not take any action. With that said, Ross Chastain’s confrontation against Daniel Suárez and vice versa indeed surprised a lot of fans, as they were teammates at Trackhouse Racing before Justin Marks’ team decided to let the latter go and make way for Connor Zilisch.
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