Dale Earnhardt Jr. pokes Ross Chastain for angering Christopher Bell, Chase Elliott

Dale Earnhardt Jr. had quite the experience watching Ross Chastain drive his JR Motorsports car in this past Saturday’s Xfinity Series race at Darlington. It was Chastain’s second Xfinity start this season for JRM, and the Cup Series regular made no friends throughout the 147-lap race.

Chastain raced hard against Chase Elliott and Christopher Bell, at one point squeezing the latter into the wall. Chastain has a reputation for being hard to pass on the racetrack. He made some aggressive moves at Darlington, and Earnhardt was fortunate it came while he was driving a JRM car, not for somebody else.

“Chastain was fun to watch but he ruffled some feathers, pissed off a few guys. [Pissed off] Chase Elliott and I know he pissed off Christopher Bell who got squeezed into the fence by Chastain late in the race,” Earnhardt said on the Dale Jr. Download. “I asked Chastain, I said, ‘When’s the next one because I’m debatable if I’m coming to that one or not. I might miss that one.’ I was kidding. … It’s like Austin Hill. If he was driving my car, I would be all about what he’s doing and how he drives.

“But I race against him, and when I raced against Chastain in the Xfinity Series, I did not like the way he drove. I did not like how he drove around my cars because he could easily lure Justin Allgaier into a fist-to-fist battle. Duking it out for 15th, beating the sh*t out of our racecar. But when he’s in your car you’re like, ‘Yeah, man! Hell yes, slide him! Alright, squeeze him into the wall!’ That was Christopher Bell, he was pretty fast. Now, he’s squeezing him into the wall.”

Ross Chastain performs well in second Xfinity Series start with JR Motorsports

Chastain finished fourth at Darlington, his first top five in Xfinity since 2023 at Watkins Glen. He competed for the win, which Earnhardt loved seeing. The JRM co-owner was concerned about the car not being good enough for a driver as talented as Chastain, but those fears quickly went away.

“Watching him work through the field — I walked up to the car, and I love this — when a Cup guy runs our car like Chastain… you see them on pit road and I’m like, ‘Hey, man, the front’s that way. What are we doing back here? Just in case you need to know which direction, it’s up there.’ And he’s just laughing as he’s climbing into the car,” Earnhardt said. “Sitting there smiling like, ‘This is gonna be fun.’ So, just having a good conversation and he’s in a good frame of mind. He goes out there and drives through the field and now he’s racing for the win.

“If he wins, he wins. If he doesn’t, he doesn’t. But I would call it a success at this point. We’re sitting here late in the race with a shot at it. That’s all I want because I get nervous that these Cup guys are going to get in my car and the car ain’t good. You put a damn talented, elite Cup level guy in your car and his car can’t run no better than 10th, that’s a sh*tty feeling. That’s on me. But the car went out there and performed.”