Ross Chastain made some noise with a runner-up at Texas. (Photo: Dylan Nadwodny | The Podium Finish)
FORT WORTH, Texas — For all the talk about Ross Chastain mellowing out, think again especially after Sunday’s race at Texas.
After placing 13th at Kansas and 23rd at Bristol, the 30-year-old Alva, Florida native entered the Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400 race weekend with quiet confidence. It was evident that he would be a factor after placing fifth in Saturday’s qualifying session.
Given the Trackhouse Racing driver’s underrated skills on intermediates, the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season runner-up bided his time. Although he placed 13th in Stage 1, he crept his way up to eighth in Stage 2, earning three stage points.
As crew chief Phil Surgen and company ardently worked on the No. 1 Worldwide Express Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, Chastain turned up the wick in Stage 3. Slowly but surely, he inched his way up the leaderboard as an emerging contender.
Following Kyle Larson’s hard, Turn 1 crash with 19 laps to go, Chastain drove inside the top five, ready to pounce. Not long after, he avoided a multi-car frontstretch accident on Lap 257 involving Ryan Blaney, Austin Cindric, Zane Smith, AJ Allmendinger, Tyler Reddick and Carson Hocevar.
Once the dust cleared, Bubba Wallace led the final restart on Lap 262. Going into Turn 3, Byron drew even with Wallace, side-by-side, before making the decisive pass.
Chastain would follow suit and nabbed the second position from Wallace. However, Byron put enough daylight between himself and Chastain to win at Texas.
Despite finishing runner-up in the 267-lap race, Chastain was pleased with the determination and hustle at the 1.5-mile quad-oval.
By all means, Ross Chastain was smooth and steady at Texas. (Photo: Dylan Nadwodny | The Podium Finish)
“It does, man. We have the speed,” Chastain said. “So to go and start the race as good as we did and then kind of work our way back, and then the two tire call, get the throttle issue figured out enough where I could really get after it, I felt like that we did everything right today when it mattered most. And that’s what matters.”
The strong performance and result puts Chastain just 12 markers ahead of ninth place Wallace. Certainly, the solid finish helps but Chastain knows there is much work to do with Talladega and the Charlotte ROVAL looming.
“I don’t know, man. I mean, we still have to make it through the wrecks, right?” he said. “We made it through a few today. We were ahead of some. We were far enough back of others when they crashed.”
Like players of the NASCAR Thunder video game series, crash avoidance pays off as much as dominating a race. Sometimes, it is better to be lucky on a race day at Texas than good where the bottom drops out.
“When the when the crashes happen and they will, it’s about where you position yourself,” he said. “And as long as I’ve made the best moves available to me at the time at Talladega, we get caught up in a wreck.
“It is what it is. I just don’t want to make an error, get ourselves in the wrong kind of track position and then got get caught up in a wreck. That’s the ones that cause me to lose a little sleep.”
For the record, Ross Chastain clarifies his demeanor and stance as a driver after a great performance at Texas. (Photo: Dylan Nadwodny | The Podium Finish)
For the most part, Chastain does not have much reason to lose sleep with some wiggle room ahead of Talladega. Likewise, given some conversations by pundits and fans claiming that he has softened his approach since the Goodyear 400 at Darlington, Chastain would like to clarify this postulation emphatically.
“Yeah, I don’t see that, right? So I don’t go looking for it. So it’s easy to not see it. I hear about it,” he said. “I have a group that keeps me up to date on what people say, but I know who I am and I’m evolving. And if people want to have opinions about who I am, that’s great.
“They don’t know me. And because every day I’m waking up and I’m trying to be better. So I’m not the same guy today as I was yesterday.”
