Nascar Driver Ross Chastain visits the Delaware State Fair
HARRINGTON, Del. – The Delaware State Fair is moving and grooving along, and it got a special visitor earlier this week in Nascar driver Ross Chastain. The meet and greet captured fans from all across Delmarva, as many wanted to talk racing.
“I had my first cup start here, and made a lot of starts in the truck and O’Reilly series so it means a lot,” said Chastain.
Known as the melon man, Chastain is an eighth-generation watermelon farmer. After winning a race, he gets on his car, smashes a watermelon on the asphalt, and then eats some. Dover Speedway holds great significance for him, he states.
“There is a lot of farmland, about an hour away from the racetrack. On race weekend, jump down there and have dinner with some friends that grow watermelons with us.”
Supporters are sharing with WMDT why the ‘Melon Man’ is always welcome at the state fair. The Lednum Family, was one of the fair-goers attending the meeting.
“The kids, this is the first time to be able to see anything like this, come back the whole thing for everyone to see.”
Tyler Kintop was one of the biggest fans. He met with Chastain at the Dover All-Star Race. He came back once again because Chastain left a wonderful impression. “I’ve been to a couple of racetracks, and I never had anything more fun than when I was at Dover, said Kintop. “I camped this year and had people pick on golf carts that I didn’t even know just to take me places.”
However, with Dover losing a race weekend back in 2021, and most recently losing a points race, fans like Tyler are left unsatisfied.
“I wish we had 2 races, I wish we had a point race and an all-star race, but it’s still racing and fun to get to. Everything can be improved, you know.”
Chastain hopes changes will be made to the format in the future.
“Going from 2 races to one is tough, we know it. We look back at the crowds when we got 2 races, and now we have to fill it all with 1. So with the all-star races this year, we will see what Nascar does.”
