Aggressive driver Chastain defends his style

Ross Chastain has proven to be a decent road racer over his career and there’s no reason to believe he won’t be in the mix Sunday at Road America in Wisconsin.

But it takes a fine line of patience and aggression to battle for race wins, and Chastain has been trying hard to find that balance in his breakout season. Chastain has picked up a pair of Cup victories this season, his first with Trackhouse Racing, but he’s rattled some cages among his rivals along the way.

He’s admittedly made a series of overaggressive on-track moves that have strained some relationships, but the 29-year-old Chastain is torn on how to proceed. What’s he done so far has Chastain both qualified for NASCAR’s playoffs and ranked second in the Cup standings.

“All I know is I’ve chased this dream and this goal of competing in the Cup Series for going on 11 years, 12 years now,” Chastain said. “When I race guys, I want it to be for the win and I want to race them for the win, and I need to not do (big moves) for fifth place. I need to have some better couth about it. I don’t know how to fix it, I just know that I want this so bad.

“And that doesn’t mean that I just get to run into people, like, I get that. And trying to be better has been a challenge. I just want to pass people. I feel like I’m the aggressive guy, yeah, but I also get run into a lot. And that’s fine, that’s racing, I love it, and I get to do it at the front of a Cup race, which is just a dream come true.”

Chastain picked up his first career Cup win in March on the Circuit of the Americas road course in Austin,

Texas, and he had to tussle with former teammate AJ Allmendinger in the closing laps to seal the win.

He won’t be afraid to bump and bang again Sunday when NASCAR makes its second consecutive trip to the idyllic 14-turn track that stretches over 4 miles and is considered among the top permanent road courses in the world. Chastain was seventh at Road America last year and the discipline suits him: Chastain has five top-10 finishes in 14 career road course starts.

On Sunday he’ll try to become the first three-race winner this season.