With a seventh-place end in Sunday’s Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway, Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain picked up his fourth top-10 end within the first eight races of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Sequence season.
“We labored our method as much as the highest 15 early within the race with changes,” Chastain stated. “We obtained caught by that one warning in the midst of the race simply after we pitted beneath inexperienced. So we needed to take the wave round and work our method again up by way of the sphere. Phil [Surgen, crew chief] and the blokes made good changes, and we had been in a position to rise up within the prime 10 and we completed seventh.”
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The No. 1 Chevrolet driver solely has two finishes worse than twelfth — a Fortieth-place end within the season-opening Daytona 500 after getting swept up in a multicar wreck and thirty first place at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Regardless of the pair of outliers, Chastain appears to be trending in the suitable path after lacking the playoffs final season. The five-time Cup Sequence race winner and crew chief Surgen will look to maintain the momentum rolling into Bristol on Sunday afternoon (3 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Though Chastain at the moment sits twelfth within the standings after Darlington, NASCAR Insights information means that the No. 1 staff is excelling in three of the 5 classes used to investigate efficiency all through the season. NASCAR Insights makes use of classes of Passer Score, Protection Score, Velocity Score, Restarts Score and Pit Crew Score to guage every driver and staff.
Within the Goodyear 400, Chastain was eighth in Passing Score, third in Protection Score and fifth in Restarts Score. Contemplating he certified twenty fifth for Sunday’s race, all three of those classes proved key in his profitable South Carolina outing.
Chastain was the most effective qualifier at Trackhouse, with teammates Daniel Suárez and Shane van Gisbergen beginning thirtieth and thirty sixth, respectively. On the finish of Stage 1, Chastain moved up from twenty fifth to 18th. Then, he gained three extra positions to finish Stage 2 in fifteenth.
The No. 1 staff stored engaged on the automobile all race lengthy, and Chastain’s capability to finish passes, preserve monitor place and profit from his restarts resulted in his fourth prime 10 of the 12 months. Chastain positioned fifteenth in Velocity Score and twenty seventh in Pit Crew Score, however it didn’t gradual him down on the monitor “Too Powerful to Tame.”
When evaluating NASCAR Insights’ season-long averages, Chastain’s Darlington efficiency mirrored what we have now seen from him all season. After eight races, he sits third in Passing Score, sixth in Protection Score and first in Restarts Score. Performing that effectively is a key indicator of on-track success.
Chastain has a repute within the storage for having moxie in his driving type, which might typically rub his rivals the fallacious method. Nonetheless, that very same type typically gives him with the outcomes he and Trackhouse are in search of on the race monitor every week.
After the Cup Sequence race at Martinsville, Crew Penske driver Joey Logano expressed his frustration with Chastain.
“He [Chastain] simply races like a jackass each week, and I preserve paying the worth,” Logano stated. “I‘m sick of paying the worth.”
MORE: Chastain ‘confused’ and ‘upset’ with Logano’s feedback
On Saturday, Chastain competed within the Xfinity Sequence race within the No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet alongside Cup Sequence regulars Christopher Bell (No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing) and Chase Elliott (No. 17 Hendrick Motorsports). Through the race, Chastain had two run-ins with each drivers. Bell’s No. 19 Toyota obtained squeezed into the wall whereas racing Chastain, placing Bell out of competition as he dropped all the way down to twenty fifth place.
Elliott expressed his displeasure with how Chastain raced him beneath warning in the course of the Xfinity Sequence race, though Elliott completed runner-up to race winner Justin Allgaier, as Chastain ended Saturday in fourth place.
With a great exhibiting of pace and ruffling feathers alongside the way in which, is the previous Ross Chastain again? Primarily based on NASCAR Insights information and the essential eye check, evidently method, which is a good signal of issues to return for the Trackhouse driver.
Chastain’s rivals might proceed to really feel annoyed towards his aggressive driving type, however it brings out the most effective in him. And when he’s on the suitable aspect of the equation, it delivers outcomes for the No. 1 staff. Being 14th in his season-long Velocity Score and fifteenth at Darlington, there is no such thing as a doubt that Chastain will get probably the most out of his gear every race, even when he doesn’t have the quickest automobile.
Different notables from Sunday:
• Regardless of putting thirteenth in Velocity Score, Christopher Bell was in a position to end third after gaining worthwhile monitor place, attributable to a well-timed warning and excellent execution on pit highway because the No. 20 left Darlington first in Pit Crew Score.
• To nobody’s shock, William Byron was first in Velocity Score after sweeping Phases 1 and a couple of, which included him main the primary 243 of 297 laps earlier than settling for a second-place end.
• Denny Hamlin was eleventh in Pit Crew Score, however his pit crew delivered large time on the cash cease that in the end helped him safe the lead and race win in NASCAR Time beyond regulation.
