Ross Chastain has enjoyed a breakout season in 2022, but the driver of the No. 1 car for TrackHouse Racing wasn’t likely someone casual sports fans who don’t watch NASCAR week-to-week knew much of.
That was until Sunday when Chastain’s last lap pass, flooring it in the final turn and riding the wall to move from 10th to 5th and passing Denny Hamlin in the process to get into the Championship 4, went viral after he brought video game racing to real life. It was a surreal moment to witness, but Chastain isn’t so sure he deserves too much credit for brilliance in taking his NASCAR 2005 skills to the real track, as he’s quick to point out that he expected to end up wrecked moreso than punching his ticket to the final race still part of the NASCAR Playoffs.
Even as he’s deflected a bit, it’s been a move that captivated the sport and sports fans well beyond NASCAR diehards. On Wednesday, we got a chance to talk with Chastain about the move, going viral, his breakout season, and why the new car has created opportunity for smaller teams as he got ready to fly out to Phoenix for the final race of the season with the Cup Series Championship on the line (Sunday, 3:00 p.m. ET on NBC).
How’s the last week been for you? Because it has to have been pretty crazy since Sunday.
Yeah, man it is. It’s been it’s been good obviously, right? A lot of good. A lot of people reachin’ out, so there was a little bit of time of reflection on it, but then it’s been full speed ahead on Phoenix.
We’ve all seen the videos, the in car, everything, but as you’re going through that and when you get told you’ve got to get two spots, as it just this is the only possible shot? Like what are the things that go through your mind as you’re trying to process how do I get to Phoenix in the Championship 4?
Yeah, I mean, it was the thought came to my head when we took the white flag and, and really had no thoughts about it before that and just thought that was my only way to try, and I wanted and had to try something and I was willing to do whatever it took and for some reason it worked.
Have you been surprised at all by the by the reaction to it and how it became this, this theme that so many people have latched on to and it’s kind of gone beyond just NASCAR fans and it’s become such a big thing for for sports fans in general?
I was just more surprised that it worked in the first place. I mean, I just fully when I committed to turn three up on the wall I just I had no idea what was gonna happen. If I was gonna just come to a stop, crash, wreck, something, you know, but the risk of it was worth the potential reward of transferring and so that’s my surprise. The rest of it, that’s what’s so great about social media. Stuff can get from Martinsville, Virginia across the world in an instant and we did that with the NASCAR race.
As you mentioned you shift your attention now to Phoenix. That’s a track where you finish second earlier this year, so you’ve got some good vibes there. Is it nice going to that track knowing like you’ve performed well there and you theoretically have an idea for setup and how to handle it?
Yeah, look, I feel a lot better that we finished second and not 22nd in the spring. So that’s not to say that we’re going to get to finish second again or anything. This car has been the greatest reset the sport has ever seen and for the duration of this year from the preseason testing to the March Phoenix race to this November race, the car is evolving at a rate that’s just unprecedented. It’s handling different, it’s driving different, it looks different on the setups, and nothing will be the same as what we had in the spring. So no guarantees but it does feel good just as a competitor and just the racer in me that we had a good run, but I’ve been around long enough though it doesn’t really mean much.
Well, even factoring in the changes, recently you’ve been having plenty success with with four top fives, and what do you feel has kind of come around for this team and has made you guys so consistently good to be able to bring a good car to the track and have a good strategy to get you guys up near the front pretty consistently during the playoffs?
It’s just a continuation of our preparation. I mean the races are — the speed is found at the race shop. And then executing it, throughout the summer I didn’t do a great job but earlier in the year and late this year we’ve done a really good job of just finishing where we belong, and then the times like Martinsville outkicking our coverage a bit. So just learning the cup series. It’s hard. These are the best drivers in the world and we’re going up against them.
What has this been like for you in the playoffs? With the week to week stress and handling that and what has the learning experience been for you as a driver in your first championship chase?
It’s been learning, a lot of learning. Look, from myself to my crew chief, spotter, we’ve never won races in our current roles in the Cup series. We’ve never been in the playoffs. So we as TrackHouse are learning all this as we go and I wouldn’t want to be doing this with anybody else. And the fact that we’re building this together, the way we are is just absolutely incredible. It’s just not supposed to happen this way. And I’m thankful it is.
Yeah. We’re so used to seeing the big teams, seeing the Hendricks and the Gibbs and the established teams that we’ve known for years. What does it feel like when you’re building something and just kind of bringing something fresh to the sport, having a team that we aren’t necessarily accustomed to seeing in the Championship 4?
It’s our arrival. So it’s kind of hard to give an unbiased opinion, because I’m on the inside looking out, right? But I think you’re gonna you’re gonna see this man. This sport is changing and evolving and your legacy teams are going to continue, but with this new car, there’s more opportunity than ever for a team to come in and compete. So, I’m glad to be in the sport at this time and in the potential that this car affords all of us, it’s just unmeasurable right now and it’ll be years maybe even decades down the road before we truly, I think understand what this car has done for the sport.
Is there is there anything specific that you can speak to as to why that is, you know, for somebody who doesn’t necessarily know the ins and outs of the car and what has changed so dramatically?
They’re truly the same. Never before in the history of our sport has this been the case. So in the past, from the very first NASCAR race to Phoenix in 2021, each team was a manufacturing facility. We manufactured race cars and then we raced them. Now we buy race cars and we assemble them so I truly have the same chassis that another competitor has on another manufacturer team. I have the same control arms. I have everything the same — now we can assemble them different, we can bolt them together at different angles and use different parts, but we all have the same parts book to order out of and that’s just never been the case in the sport.