Instead of retreating to a calmer, drier place during a Thursday rain delay at Georgetown (Del.) Speedway that paused Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series action, Ross Chastain put himself front and center of the crowd that swelled around the Niece Motorsports transporter.

Of course, plenty of photo and autograph requests ensued. And Chastain didn’t have to put on a smile for the many that asked for a minute of his time. The NASCAR Cup Series star and former SportsCenter No. 1 for his famous wall-ride maneuver at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway last fall was happily immersed in the laidback environment of Dirt Late Model racing.

“I’ve fallen in love with them,” the 30-year-old Chastain said of Dirt Late Models. “And the camaraderie, the family atmosphere, of coming to these dirt races. Everyone is super nice, the fans and competitors.”

WATCH: Ross Chastain's video-game-like move from last fall at Martinsville Speedway.

The easygoing nature Chastain speaks of extends beyond the patrons, too. The one time Chastain stepped away from the entourage was when Devin Moran ushered over a thick binder of setup notes for Chastain and his teammate for the evening, big-block superstar Matt Sheppard, to look over.

Skillset-wise, Alva, Fla.'s Chastain is a foreigner among dirt racing’s best. On Thursday at the Delaware half-mile, he qualified 26th of 28 drivers and wasn’t close to making the 49-lap main event. After all, it was only his second career Dirt Late Model start.

Chastain has a handful of dirt track appearances: in the NASCAR Truck at Ohio’s Eldora Speedway in 2019, the Cup car at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway each of the last three years, this May in a Late Model at South Carolina’s Cherokee Speedway, and last month in a big-block modified at Utica-Rome Speedway in Vernon, N.Y.

WATCH: Ross Chastain's first laps in a Big-Block Modified at Utica-Rome Speedway.

His journey from an eighth-generation watermelon farmer to a long-term NASCAR Cup contract with Trackhouse Racing — the second-year team co-owned by former dirt sprint car owner Justin Marks and famous rapper Pitbull — never included true dirt racing until recently. Chastain is a former Limited Late Model champion of the World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing, Florida's winter miniseries that produced key NASCAR personalities in Dick Trickle, Jimmy Spencer and Steve Park.

In short, Chastain’s just tapping into the more refreshing side of short-track racing.

“Asphalt short-track racing … man, it’s so cutthroat, I feel like,” Chastain said. “And maybe just because it’s what I’m used to. The dirt racing … we could learn something in asphalt short-track racing. I hope to say that enough where the asphalt short-trackers will say, ‘OK, let’s be a little nicer to each other.’ Because dirt racing is a totally different feel and vibe.”

Why is Chastain late to the dirt racing game? Logistically, he’s inked a long-term deal aboard the Trackhouse Racing No. 1 Cup car and he’s in the midst of fleshing out a 2024 schedule in both of NASCAR’s Xfinity and Truck Series. Chastain’s way of maintaining his connection with Niece Motorsports, which also occasionally fields Dirt Late Models for Tyler Carpenter and NASCAR Truck driver Carson Hocevar, is going Truck and dirt racing with the team that’s instrumental to his present-day success. Niece Motorsports gave Chastain his first legitimate opportunity to win a NASCAR title the 2019 Truck Series season, a year the would-be Cup driver finished second in the standings.

Now Chastain and Niece Motorsports have the time and resources to get serious building some kind of limited Dirt Late Model schedule.

“Yes … we don’t have a plan. But it’s on our list of things to work on,” Chastain said. “The Cup car is now funded. We have everything announced. Long-term contract. I’ll be racing for Niece Motorsports in the Truck Series as long as they’ll have me. We’re building out our Xfinity schedule right now for 2024.

“Then, after that, the next on the list are Dirt Late Models. Really any kind of dirt racing. I’d like to go run a street stock or something. Something more of a stock suspension, which will help me more in the Cup car. But these (Dirt Late Models) are just cool. The kid in me watched these. I was never around them growing up … we had asphalt racing.”

Ken Adams, co-owner of Georgetown Speedway and team owner of Ross Robinson’s No. 7 on the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, is responsible for putting Chastain’s dirt racing in motion. Chastain met Adams in 2006 as a 13-year-old fan during NASCAR’s weekend at Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway. Chastain’s uncle Richie won a pair of tickets at a National Watermelon Association auction to Adams’ suite at Dover Downs, but passed them along to his nephew and brother Ralph.

“We’d donate tickets every year to the (National Watermelon Association) … so they were up in our skybox,” said Adams, also the grandson of Melvin L. Joseph, the founder of Georgetown Speedway in 1949. “I remember Ross saying, ‘I’m going to race here someday.’ And we’re all like, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah.’ We patted him on the head and just said, ‘Yeah, OK.’

“He just started racing then back at home (in Florida). We struck up a conversation and have been friends ever since. … My in-laws are also watermelon farmers in the area, so there’s that connection, too.”

Chastain, like Adams, said the meeting was memorable.

“You have to picture it, like, in 2006 I’m 13 years old, just started racing locally, so I’m all-in on racing,” Chastain said. “Me and my dad jumped on a plane and came up here. We got to go up in a suite, and that was awesome. Then we met Mr. Adams. He introduced me to Bobby Allison (who drove for Melvin Joseph). It was a wild experience; something I’ll never forget.

“I did forget this: I told him in the suite that day I’d race here, at Dover, one day. I probably shouldn’t have said that, but I thought it as a 13-year-old … or something like that. The years all blur together. Too many race cars between then and now.”

When Adams originally landed an April date with the Lucas Oil Series at Georgetown, the same weekend NASCAR had been at the Dover mile oval, he couldn’t help but to invite Chastain to participate.

“Earlier this year, we were talking on the phone. And he was like, ‘Man, I want to get you in a Dirt Late Model … there’s a race at Georgetown during Dover weekend.’ I told them all ‘No,’ ” Chastain said. “Actually for 10 years, I told them no. When Ken asked, I was like, ‘All right, that’s enough people. I should probably listen to him.’ I’ve wanted to do it, it’s just I’ve really wanted to be a NASCAR driver. So I’ve put all my effort since 2011 into Trucks, Xfinity, and Cup racing.”

WATCH: Ross Chastain returns to pavement Late Model roots earlier this year at North Wilkesboro (N.C.) Speedway.

In regards to Dirt Late Model racing, Chastain said “I’m only doing this for fun,” but that doesn’t imply he’s in the game for a joyride or two a year. Chastain seems to be serious about fleshing out a limited schedule moving forward, as long as he finds time amid his NASCAR action to test along the way.

“Need more laps. I need to put more time in going testing and I just haven’t,” Chastain said. “I’m only doing this for fun. Right now the only scenarios I get into (a Late Model) is at the races. If I can shake it down, get some more laps, when the cameras aren’t here … no offense.

“I’m going to make that a focus before next year to get some more laps, so when I come to these races I’m a little more prepared. I should’ve unloaded how I was after hot laps. I’m a racer. I can always critique myself.”

His growing interest in Dirt Late Model racing is additionally in part to fellow NASCAR drivers Kyle Larson, Kyle Busch, Chase Briscoe and Hocevar dabbling more in the discipline these last few years.

Chastain’s had his on-track run-ins and confrontations with Larson, among others, this year, even emerging as a story in the Washington Post titled “Ross Chastain’s aggressive style is working, and irking NASCAR rivals.” But he’s appeared to tone down the roughhousing by trying to relate to guys like Larson on the grassroots level.

WATCH: Kyle Larson says Ross Chastain has potential to become NASCAR's most popular driver.

“He’s been the most helpful,” Chastain said. “I feel like he laughs at some of the questions I have … they’re pretty bottom-of-the-barrel, base-level questions. I’m just trying to learn.”

In two weeks, Larson will have a legitimate shot to win the 53rd running of the World 100 at Ohio’s Eldora Speedway. Chastain, meanwhile, doesn’t have enough legitimate reasons to partake in the event. At least “not yet,” he said.

“One day … one day,” Chastain said. “One step at a time.”