(Photo: Kevin Ritchie | The Podium Finish)
RIDGEWAY, Va. — A pass and a finish that couldn’t have been scripted.
In the closing laps at Martinsville Speedway, it seemed Ross Chastain’s luck was ready to run out. He sat two points below Denny Hamlin for the final Playoff spot when he took the white flag in Sunday’s Xfinity 500. Something extraordinary needed to happen.
Chastain took that into his own hands. He had been running 10th, about where he was all day after finishing ninth in both stages. Chastain sent his No. 1 Chevrolet Camaro into Turn 3 at full speed, shifted into fifth gear and pinned his car against the wall. He violently rode the wall completely through the corner and hoped.
“I didn’t know how it would all work out. I didn’t know if the physics would work to make it around the corner,” Chastain said.
When Chastain emerged out of Turn 4 with his beaten car, he had gained four positions. He squeaked past Denny Hamlin at the finish line to take one final spot and miraculously finish fifth. Chastain made the championship.
(NOTE: Chastain was officially scored fourth after NASCAR disqualified Brad Keselowski)
Chaos immediately ensued. The grandstands erupted and TrackHouse Racing celebrated in awe.
“I looked up, dropped the net, I saw them,” Chastain explained. “Phil (Surgen, crew chief) keyed up. I just lost my mind. I was screaming and fist-pumping. I’ve learned my lesson. I don’t punch the dash anymore, that hurts, carbon fiber, all the gauges, they hurt, the bars. I just lost my mind all the way around pit road.”
Chastain had never really thought about that move before it happened. He said he used to try similar moves as a child playing NASCAR 05 on his GameCube with Chad, his brother.
But that didn’t pop back into his head until the final lap.
(Photo: Kevin Ritchie | The Podium Finish)
“Never once did it cross my mind or ever try it,” Chastain said.” The last time would have been a long time ago before I was even thinking about being a NASCAR driver. It flashed back in my head on the white flag, and I double-checked off of two. Like, through one and two I thought, I think we need two spots. They said, Yes. If it wrecks, OK, we don’t make it. It might not work, but I’ll try it.”
For Hamlin, it’s a disappointing end to a race and a season that had so much promise. Hamlin shaved off a five-point deficit to William Byron early on by winning both stages to create a cushion.
But after leading 200 laps, three consecutive long pit stops slowly dropped Hamlin down in the running order. At the final restart with 24 laps to go, Hamlin needed to make up four spots. He forced his way from 12th to fifth in the final laps to be in a position to transfer.
However, the damage was already done. Hamlin felt he had the best car and should’ve won the race. A season plagued by issues on pit road ended with three long pit stops.
(Photo: Kevin Ritchie | The Podium Finish)
“You got to execute all day. We just didn’t control the race when we had control of it,” Hamlin said. “Each caution we just kept losing some spots.”
Ironically, Hamlin and Chastain have had their fair share of run-ins this season. Chastain made contact with Hamlin at Gateway and sent him into the wall. Hamlin responded with his battered car later in the race by taunting Chastain.
At Atlanta in July, Chastain tagged Hamlin and sparked a crash in the closing laps. Hamlin tried to gain revenge by running Chastain out of room and into the wall at Pocono, but Chastain got the last laugh as Hamlin was disqualified for tape on the front fascia.
But at Martinsville, they put differences aside and raced hard down the stretch before Chastain’s last-lap move. They made contact several times, but nothing out of malicious intent.
Hamlin praised their battle and Chastain’s move after the race.
“Actually pretty happy with somewhat how clean it was there towards the end, as crazy as it was with guys on different tires,” Hamlin said. “Great move. Brilliant. Certainly a great move. When you have no other choice, it certainly is easy to do that. But well executed.”
A Long Journey
It’s more than just a driver making his first championship. It’s about his long, untraditional journey.
Chastain grew up in Alva, Fla. as an eighth-generation watermelon farmer. He moved to Charlotte in 2011 to pursue his racing dream and made five starts in the Camping World Truck Series.
Chastain was underfunded and struggled to piece together several races at a time. Though he went full-time Trucks in 2012 for SS-Green Light, it wasn’t until 2015 that Chastain found a full-time ride with JD Motorsports in the Xfinity Series. In 2018, Chip Ganassi Racing hired Chastain for three Xfinity races, when he won at Las Vegas and finished second at Richmond.
That same season, Chastain joined Premium Motorsports to run a majority of Cup Series races. In 2019, he made all but one Cup start for Premium and made 19 Xfinity starts for Kaulig Racing where he won twice. He originally announced a part-time deal with Niece Motorsports, but with more sponsorship, efforts shifted to full time and he contended for a championship. Chastain won three races and finished second behind Matt Crafton in points.
Chastain raced full-time for Kaulig in 2020 where he recorded 27 top 10s. He made eight Cup starts — three for Roush Fenway Racing to replace injured Ryan Newman and five for Spire Motorsports. Chastain raced Darlington with Spire, where he had Dirty Mo Media, a podcast company owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr., sponsoring the car.
“They bought sticker tires for the whole weekend,” Chastain said. “We had a podcast sponsoring us through T-shirts that we sold that didn’t even have my name on it.
“If you go back two calendar years, I was the guy five laps down, seven laps down, something like that. Those were good nights. Those were wins in our book.”
Chastain after winning his first Cup race at Circuit of the Americas (Photo: Sean Folsom | The Podium Finish)
In 2021, Ganassi hired him back to race full-time in Cup. Midway through the season, TrackHouse announced it would purchase Ganassi’s Cup operation and all of its assets. Chastain was again without a ride.
But Justin Marks took a chance on him. Marks signed Chastain to TrackHouse and he immediately made an impact. Chastain won twice and his teammate, Daniel Suarez, won once. A second-year Cup operation suddenly thrived with new assets and a brand-new car.
On Sept. 28, Hurricane Ian made landfall in Southwest Florida, ravaging Collier and Lee counties, including Alva.
Chastain’s home and watermelon farm survived. Others weren’t as fortunate.
“We have neighbors and friends that their houses flooded,” Chastain said. “The cleanup and the rebuilding is going to be for years … It just looks like another country; something you would see on the news, on TV or online.”
A month later, Chastain will represent Southwest Florida in the NASCAR Cup Series Championship, where a watermelon farmer at heart will have a chance to make his community proud.
