DAYTONA BEACH — For the most part, Ross Chastain is pretty happy with the way he was depicted in the new Netflix documentary, "NASCAR: Full Speed."

But he did have a couple of nitpicks and if you see Chastain smiling around Daytona International Speedway this week, he wants you to know his pearly whites are well taken care of.

"I wish they would've shown the bottle of charcoal toothpaste, the label of it, so people don't just think I have black stuff in my toothbrush," Chastain said via phone interview last week. "The tube is right there! They could've just panned over and showed it, but they zoomed in and made it look like I've got I don't know what going on."

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Oh, and one more thing:

"And then at the end, yeah, show the 1 car crossing the finish line (at Phoenix). Show us winning the race. That would've been nice too."

That victory in the 2023 season finale has the eighth-generation watermelon farmer and his Trackhouse Racing team entering the 2024 season and Sunday's 66th running of the Daytona 500 with big dreams and high expectations. Not that that's any different from the norm for Chastain, who finished second in the points standings in 2022 before being eliminated in the Round of 12 a year ago after a crash at Talladega.

But for a driver who has become infamous for on-track beating and banging and resulting feuds with competitors — there's already been a dustup this season in the Clash at the Coliseum with Tyler Reddick — Chastain is anything but emotional or hot-headed.

At least in everyday conversation, he's as even-keeled as they come. Even when it comes to 2024 and his desire to reach the top of the heap in the Cup Series.

“We’re just business as usual,” Chastain said. “We go to work and I wouldn’t want to be doing it with anyone else.”

By now, Chastain's meteoric rise from scrounging for start-and-park rides to multiple wins in back-to-back seasons for upstart Trackhouse is well documented. And he didn't get here by worrying about things outside of his control.

So, when it comes to big-picture questions like, "Where should NASCAR move the Clash," while so many others are eager to voice an opinion, Chastain claims he truly doesn't have one. And can't afford to take the time to form one.

"I'm very narrow focused on my career," Chastain said. "I'm pretty selfish, so, as a driver, I can't begin to think about where the races should be. Once they give me the schedule and the rulebook, I try to figure out how to beat it."

Does Ross Chastain consider the Daytona 500 a home race?

You bet.

Hailing from Alva, Florida, just a small stretch due East from Fort Myers, Chastain had two NASCAR tracks in his home state while growing up: Daytona and Homestead-Miami. But he said it's the former where he spent the most time attending races in his formative years.

In 2019, he went to Victory Lane at Daytona in the Xfinity Series in a start for Kaulig Racing. And if that night was any indication, a win in the Daytona 500 would sure feel like one for the home folks.

"That was wild," Chastain recalled. "We spent the whole night smashing watermelons across that infield. If it was ever a Daytona 500 or a Cup win, that would be special."

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As it turns out, that Xfinity victory isn't the only time Chastain has prevailed at Daytona International Speedway.

Before he was driving one of the premier rides in the sport, Chastain spent a lot of time in the infield and found some success in wheelbarrow races in the West Horseshoe of the road course. Hey, a win's a win!

"You’ve got to remember man, I wasn’t always driving racecars. I was there driving hospitality motorhomes, I was there just being there, trying to find rides," he said. "So, I had some free time on my hands."

How does Ross Chastain get a watermelon after winning so quickly?

We've seen it four times in two years now. Ross Chastain wins a race, climbs from the car and is immediately handed a watermelon to smash on the track.

Ever wondered how that works? Well, just know that Chastain's pepo rides in finer style than most of us ever will.

“So, it’s changed over the years but with Trackhouse, we have a spot on the hauler. They built a new box for it. It has it’s own spot. It lives on the counter in a nice machine metal box and foam that it sits in.

“Our team of truck drivers at Trackhouse, they do the grocery shopping for us and they make sure there’s one on there that’s good to smash and be ready if that was to happen.”

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: NASCAR: Ross Chastain on Daytona 500, oral hygiene and his watermelons