Fan Chased Down By NASCAR Security After Reaching Into Ross Chastain’s Car & Stealing His Hat Off His Head Following Coke 600 Win

This is why we can’t have nice things.

The 2025 Coca-Cola 600 will go down as one of the best NASCAR Cup Series races in recent memory (and not just because Prime did an incredible job broadcasting their first ever race).

The annual Memorial Day weekend race at Charlotte Motor Speedway had a ton of action all night, despite William Byron dominating and threatening to stink up the show.

It looked like it was going to come down to a battle between Byron and Denny Hamlin for the win, until Hamlin’s pit crew made a mistake during the final pit stop and didn’t get his car full of fuel. That obviously forced Hamlin to come back down pit road late in the race after running out of gas and ruined his chance at a win.

But the story of the night was Ross Chastain, who started dead last after wrecking during practice and being forced into a backup car. Throughout NASCAR’s longest race, Chastain was able to slowly and methodically work his #1 car through the pack, and after the final pit stop was absolutely flying as he chased down Byron for the lead.

With just eight laps to go, Chastain got by Byron and was able to get up in front of him to take the lead, holding on for his first win of the season and the first win of 2025 for Trackhouse Racing, which has struggled with speed at times so far this year.

It was the first time a driver has started last and won a race since Richard Petty did it in 1973. And as a Ross Chastain fan myself, I loved it.

After his signature watermelon smash celebration (Chastain is an 8th generation watermelon farmer from Florida), he drove the #1 car to pit road where he was greeted by Trackhouse Racing team owner Justin Marks. But when he stopped on pit road to speak to his owner, apparently a fan decided to try to ruin his celebration.

According to both Chastain and witnesses on pit road, a random fan reached into the car and grabbed the hat off of Chastain’s head and ran away with it while taunting the driver:

On Chastain’s in-car video, you can see the fan in the blue hoodie running away, as Chastain yells after him:

“Hey, give me that hat back. Give me that f***ing hat back.”

And it doesn’t take long before NASCAR security and Trackhouse team members manage to chase down the fan and get Ross his hat back.

According to the driver, his race-winning hats are special to him, and he wasn’t about to let this one get away after the biggest win of his career:

“That was unfortunate. A guy was on pit road, he was super excited. He reached in, I high fived him, I didn’t know him. And he just grabbed my head and I thought, ‘Oh he’s just saying good job buddy.’

And then he just pulled the hat and he did this little dance and he said, ‘I got your hat, I got your hat.’…

That’s my winning hat. It rode in the car. Every week, every race car I ever drive, I have to have a hat with the hole in it so I can put it on the shifter and it rides on the transmission tunnel every week, every race. So that’s the hat, and I’ll put that on the shelf. It means a lot to me and I’m not going to give that away.”

Luckily Chastain got his hat back, and I have a feeling after all the Busch Light he drank last night, he probably doesn’t even remember the random fan who tried to ruin his celebration.The post Fan Chased Down By NASCAR Security After Reaching Into Ross Chastain’s Car & Stealing His Hat Off His Head Following Coke 600 Win first appeared on Whiskey Riff.