Why profitable at Darlington is “high of my listing” for Ross Chastain

Already a crown jewel winner together with his dramatic last-to-first victory on this yr’s Coca Cola 600, Ross Chastain is wanting so as to add one other one this weekend because the NASCAR Cup Playoffs start with the Southern 500 at Darlington.

“It is my favourite monitor,” mentioned Chastain throughout Playoff Media Day on Wednesday. “It is simply completely high of my listing. At any time when I take a look at tracks that I need to win at, and I need to work to be higher at, Darlington is it.  I have been via an unimaginable studying course of since I first drove on that monitor (studying) tips on how to drive it, and getting a Cup win there may be completely high of my listing.”

It is a race monitor he is had loads of success at, however no Cup wins simply but. He has completed between third and fifth in three of the final 4 Southern 500s, and he practically received the spring race right here simply a few years in the past.

Chastain’s difficult historical past at Darlington

His lone victory got here in a Truck race throughout the 2024 season, however that does not even start to inform the entire story. Darlington basically put Chastain on the map. After competing with quite a lot of lower-funded groups for years, he lastly obtained a shot in race-winning tools at Darlington in 2018.

Driving for Chip Ganassi Racing within the Xfinity Collection, he received each phases from pole place and led over half the race, Nevertheless, it got here to an abrupt finish with lower than 40 laps to go when he clashed with Cup celebrity Kevin Harvick. Racing laborious for the lead, Harvick tried to pin Chastain behind a slower automotive. It did not work, and the 2 drivers had been side-by-side via treacherous Flip 2, leading to vital contact.

After the crash, Chastain hooked Harvick’s automotive in anger, and the 2014 Cup champion later provided some feedback that did not age significantly properly: “You’ve got obtained a very inexperienced man in a very quick automotive that made a very unhealthy transfer, after which wrecked me down the again straightaway and hooked me to the correct. Most likely the rationale he’ll by no means get to drive a lot of them once more.”

Chastain is ready to make his 250th profession begin within the Cup Collection this weekend, and sarcastically, he grew to become Harvick’s successor as the brand new consultant of Anheuser-Busch in NASCAR.

However the theme of Darlington race wins slipping via Chastain’s fingers has been a continuing all through his profession. He wrecked whereas battling Denny Hamlin for the win in an Xfinity race there in 2020, and wrecked battling Hamlin once more for the lead in 2022 — this time in a Cup race.

Final yr, he was main with 25 laps to go on an alternate technique, and could not maintain the lead with older tires. And this previous spring, he was main the Xfinity race with 16 laps to go earlier than a sluggish pit cease value him monitor place.

Watch: Ross Chastain, Kyle Larson tangle late at Darlington Raceway

However Chastain’s most notorious loss got here early in 2023. He was main the common season standings on the time, and he was all anybody needed to speak about. This was as a result of the ‘Melon Man’ had angered nearly everybody within the storage, and was one week faraway from punching Noah Gragson within the face on nationwide TV.

Chastain went on to guide 93 laps that day, and was battling Kyle Larson for the win within the closing laps. Larson, irked by an earlier restart the place Chastain ran him up the monitor, pushed Chastain into the wall. Nevertheless, a wreck behind them triggered a yellow, and Chastain was truly credited with the race lead.

On the following restart, Chastain determined to return the favor, but it surely didn’t go the way in which he anticipated. He ran Larson up into the wall, but additionally himself, wrecking each vehicles in entrance of the sphere in a disasterous second for Chevrolet. A mountain of criticism rained down on Chastain, and NASCAR’s most profitable workforce proprietor, Rick Hendrick, was on the heart of all of it.

Chastain retreated to the shadows after that, and people explosive run-ins with rivals that had change into commonplace had been now few and much between. However over two years later, whereas Trackhouse has misplaced a few of its edge speed-wise, Chastain has change into a much more calculated driver together with his aggression.

May the No. 1 win Darlington this weekend?

Ross Chastain, Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet

Photograph by: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Photos

His Coke 600 drive showcased that, passing your complete discipline, stalking race chief William Byron for a number of laps, and executing the profitable go with only a few laps to go within the 600-mile marathon race. Whereas the summer season has been a little bit of a stoop for the No. 1 workforce, Chastain believes “we’ve the potential to drag on monitor at Darlington and have the identical stage of group that we had that Saturday (in Charlotte),” claimed Chastain.

“I felt it into the primary nook, off pit highway in apply and rolled down in flip three, and once I got here off flip 4, I felt instantly that the automotive had grip after which it was as much as me to go make lap time. If we’ve that feeling at Darlington and that steadiness within the automotive, it may be a enjoyable weekend.”

And if he had been to lastly win the Southern 500 in his eighth look, it will imply much more to him than an on the spot ticket to the subsequent spherical of the Playoffs.

“It might imply every little thing,” mentioned Chastain. “I imply, it is a life achievement, much like profitable the Coca Cola 600, however I put Darlington on the very high. So, any fall race — Southern 500 race — I’ll work a very long time to win, whether or not that is this yr or someday later in my profession. I do know once I get performed, I’ll put a full physique of labor into making an attempt to win there, and whether or not we ever do it or not is to be decided. 

“However brief time period, it will imply, say at World Extensive Expertise Raceway and Bristol (the opposite two races within the Spherical of 16), I might be strolling round a complete lot lighter than if we do not.”