(Photo: Jared Bokanoski | The Podium Finish)
CONCORD, N.C. — Ross Chastain didn’t have any more playoff magic in the tank from last season. After a wild, last-ditch wall ride at Martinsville Speedway sent the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing team to the Championship 4 in 2022, Chastain could have used some similar wild circumstances to propel himself into the Round of 8 on Sunday.
Instead, it was a ho-hum 10th-place finish at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL and a second-round elimination, missing the cutoff by 12 points.
Entering the Round of 12 finale at 10 points below the cutline, Chastain needed to have a near-perfect day in the Bank of America ROVAL 400 to transfer. A non-playoff driver in AJ Allmendinger won, which helped. But he needed someone in the top eight to have a disaster strike, which never really happened outside of a lone penalty to Brad Keselowski.
“We knew coming in that it was going to be tough,” Chastain said after the race. “We put together a heck of a day for us on road courses this year in this No. 1 Worldwide Express Chevy. Lately, we’ve just been lacking speed and I can’t get over the curbs. There’s a lot of reasons.”
Chastain ran well all afternoon. After starting 12th, he earned points in each of the first two stages and showed contending speed. He just didn’t have enough track position to battle for the win, which mainly came from electing to not short pit either stage.
The 30-year-old from Alva, Florida found himself in trouble entering the ROVAL after getting caught up in a crash at Talladega Superspeedway. When Ricky Stenhouse Jr. ran out of fuel at the end of Stage 1, he had nowhere to go and wrecked out of the race. He finished 37th and earned just one point.
Chastain finished second in the Round of 12 opener at Texas Motor Speedway, but that hard work went without use. Some of that, however, fell on a lack of playoff points. He had just one victory and 11 total playoff points all season, giving himself less of a cushion as the playoffs progressed. Chastain has eight top fives and 12 top 10s with an average finish of 15.3.
Although Chastain’s out of the playoffs, he’s satisfied with the way his No. 1 Chevrolet team is trending after inconsistencies over the summer. With four races remaining in the season, he’s holding his head high.
“I’m excited with the gains we’ve made,” Chastain said. “We came out of the box super strong in 2022 – won the first road course race in the Next Gen car. And then it just slowly kind of stepped back all the way until mid-season this year.
“I can’t wait to get to work in the morning, to Las Vegas [Motor Speedway] and every race after that.”
