Ross Chastain may share business ties with several of the drivers on the grid, but once the helmet goes on, he knows that those relationships take a back seat. He recently opened up about the same in an interview with The Athletic on June 17.

Besides being a Cup Series driver for Trackhouse Racing, Chastain also owns a driver representation and management agency called Motorsport Management International. While owning a business creates a unique dynamic, Chastain knows the clear line between business and competition.

"When I’m in the race, I could not care less about them," said Chastain during an interview with Jeff Gluck from The Athletic, when the Trackhouse Racing driver was questioned if he can separate racing from business on track. 

The agency has represented a lot of drivers across the sport, like Denny Hamlin, Jamie McMurray, Kasey Kahne, and many more. Currently, the agency represents drivers like Carson Hocevar and Kaden Honeycutt. 

The MMI co-founder further spoke about how he does not change his behaviour towards his clients on track, but he will be cheering for them if he is not competing against them in a specific race. 

"You’ve seen Kaden mad at me," he said during The Athletic's interview. "You’ve seen Carson mad at me. You’ve seen me mad at both of them — maybe more one than the other. When I’m in the race, nope. That will never go away. That’s for MMI to handle later if there’s an issue. When I’m not in the race, yeah, I root for them. I’m a fan of the sport."

As mentioned by Chastain at times, things can get heated on track between him and the drivers his agency represents. One of the latest examples of this is the Truck Race at Darlington earlier this year, in March.

When Kaden Honeycutt Expresses His Frustration Towards Ross Chastain and Carson Hocevar

During the Darlington Truck Race on March 20th, 2026, Honeycutt was having a spectacular run and looked like he was in contention to win. It was during the second overtime restart that things went all wrong for the TRICON Garage driver. 

During the overtime restart, he was pushed down to fourth after he tried battling both Chastain and Hocevar. He expressed his feelings about the two drivers during his post-race interview. 

"What the h*** do they care about, right?" he said. "I understand we’re racing for a win, but they knew I was the best truck so they did what they had to do to take me out of it, so it just sucks. I’m not very good at running back into people when they run into me."

While Honeycutt blamed both drivers for him finishing in fourth, Chastain was not sure about what went wrong. While talking to the media, he gave his stance about the same. 

"Kaden wasn’t the most happy with me," the No.1 Chevrolet for Trackhouse Racing driver said. "Kaden missed the bottom into turn 1 or gave Carson the bottom, and I pushed Carson through a couple restarts before the end. I might have got him off of [turn] 2."

This is one of the many examples that, for Ross Chastain, the business remains separate from the racing. 

What do you think of Chastain's mentality while switching between roles? Let us know in the comments.

Read more at RFK Racing Digest.

Written by

Chionia Libania Colaco

Edited by

Soheli Tarafdar