Ross Chastain is facing a situation he hasn’t had to deal with since joining Trackhouse over two years ago — potentially missing the playoffs. Currently, Chastain sits 27 points below the cut-line entering the regular season finale at Darlington. Although he could still point his way in, realistically, it’s likely win or nothing this weekend.
He has made the playoffs in back-to-back years, ending 2022 as the championship runner-up. Chastain even opened the 2024 season by nearly winning the Daytona 500, spinning out in a daring move up the middle while trying to take the lead. His Trackhouse Racing teammate Daniel Suarez won the very next week and many thought the driver of the No. 1 would soon follow suit. But as it stands, Chastain’s most recent Cup win was the 2023 title-decider, besting all of the Championship 4 drivers and snatching the checkered flag at Phoenix.
Missed opportunities and lost points
It’s not to say that a win in 2024 for Chastain was impossible — opportunities and chances were there but the checkered flag remained just out of of reach. At Texas Motor Speedway, he pushed Chase Elliott to the lead and battled side-by-side with the Hendrick Motorsports star on the final restart. At Nashville Superspeedway, he was leading with just over five laps to go when Denny Hamlin passed him after a brief battle. More importantly, in both races, he looked set to finish second before late-race chaos cost him upwards of 60+ points.
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With half a lap to go at Texas, he was turned into the wall by William Byron after the driver of the No. 24 closed in fast at the exit of Turn 2. A caution with two laps remaining at Nashville pushed the race into overtime, and Chastain was wrecked from the front row when Kyle Larson blew the entry in Turn 1. If he could wash those incidents away, we’d be having a very different conversation right now.
Chastain addressed those races in a Saturday media availability, saying “Nashville is obviously at the top of that list” when looking at moments he wishes he could take back.
“I felt like we could win there (Nashville). Texas, I was going to run second and would be really happy coming out of there. Those two stand out the most. Pocono, I just crashed. Not at the end of the race and not up front. We were not up front at all, but that’s one where I just flat spun out. Trying to go too fast for…
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