Why winning at Darlington is “top of my list...

Already a crown jewel winner along with his dramatic last-to-first victory in this year’s Coca Cola 600, Ross Chastain is trying so as to add one other one this weekend because the NASCAR Cup Playoffs start with the Southern 500 at Darlington.

“It is my favourite observe,” mentioned Chastain throughout Playoff Media Day on Wednesday. “It is simply completely prime of my record. Every time I have a look at tracks that I need to win at, and I need to work to be higher at, Darlington is it.  I have been by means of an unbelievable studying course of since I first drove on that observe (studying) find out how to drive it, and getting a Cup win there’s completely prime of my record.”

It is a race observe he is had loads of success at, however no Cup wins simply but. He has completed between third and fifth in three of the final 4 Southern 500s, and he almost gained the spring race right here simply a few years in the past.

Chastain’s sophisticated historical past at Darlington

His lone victory got here in a Truck race in the course of the 2024 season, however that does not even start to inform the entire story. Darlington primarily put Chastain on the map. After competing with quite a lot of lower-funded groups for years, he lastly received a shot in race-winning tools at Darlington in 2018.

Driving for Chip Ganassi Racing within the Xfinity Collection, he gained each phases from pole place and led over half the race, Nonetheless, it got here to an abrupt finish with lower than 40 laps to go when he clashed with Cup famous person Kevin Harvick. Racing onerous for the lead, Harvick tried to pin Chastain behind a slower automotive. It didn’t work, and the two drivers were side-by-side through treacherous Turn 2, resulting in significant contact.

After the crash, Chastain hooked Harvick’s automotive in anger, and the 2014 Cup champion later supplied some feedback that did not age notably effectively: “You have received a very inexperienced man in a very quick automotive that made a very unhealthy transfer, after which wrecked me down the again straightaway and hooked me to the appropriate. In all probability the rationale he’ll by no means get to drive lots of them once more.”

Chastain is ready to make his 250th profession begin within the Cup Collection this weekend, and sarcastically, he grew to become Harvick’s successor as the brand new consultant of Anheuser-Busch in NASCAR.

However the theme of Darlington race wins slipping by means of Chastain’s fingers has been a relentless all through his profession. He wrecked whereas battling Denny Hamlin for the win in an Xfinity race there in 2020, and wrecked battling Hamlin once more for the lead in 2022 — this time in a Cup race.

Final yr, he was main with 25 laps to go on an alternate technique, and could not maintain the lead with older tires. And this previous spring, he was main the Xfinity race with 16 laps to go earlier than a gradual pit cease value him observe place.

Watch: Ross Chastain, Kyle Larson tangle late at Darlington Raceway

However Chastain’s most notorious loss got here early in 2023. He was main the common season standings on the time, and he was all anybody needed to speak about. This was as a result of the ‘Melon Man’ had angered nearly everybody within the storage, and was one week faraway from punching Noah Gragson within the face on nationwide TV.

Chastain went on to guide 93 laps that day, and was battling Kyle Larson for the win within the closing laps. Larson, irked by an earlier restart the place Chastain ran him up the observe, pushed Chastain into the wall. Nonetheless, a wreck behind them triggered a yellow, and Chastain was truly credited with the race lead.

On the following restart, Chastain determined to return the favor, nevertheless it didn’t go the best way he anticipated. He ran Larson up into the wall, but additionally himself, wrecking each vehicles in entrance of the sector in a disasterous second for Chevrolet. A mountain of criticism rained down on Chastain, and NASCAR’s most successful team owner, Rick Hendrick, was at the center of it all.

Chastain retreated to the shadows after that, and people explosive run-ins with rivals that had develop into commonplace had been now few and much between. However over two years later, whereas Trackhouse has misplaced a few of its edge speed-wise, Chastain has develop into a much more calculated driver along with his aggression.

May the No. 1 win Darlington this weekend?

Ross Chastain, Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet

Photograph by: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Pictures

His Coke 600 drive showcased that, passing the complete discipline, stalking race chief William Byron for a number of laps, and executing the successful cross with only a few laps to go within the 600-mile marathon race. Whereas the summer season has been a little bit of a stoop for the No. 1 staff, Chastain believes “we have now the potential to tug on observe at Darlington and have the identical stage of group that we had that Saturday (in Charlotte),” claimed Chastain.

“I felt it into the primary nook, off pit highway in follow and rolled down in flip three, and once I got here off flip 4, I felt straight away that the automotive had grip after which it was as much as me to go make lap time. If we have now that feeling at Darlington and that steadiness within the automotive, it will be a enjoyable weekend.”

And if he had been to lastly win the Southern 500 in his eighth look, it could imply much more to him than an immediate ticket to the following spherical of the Playoffs.

“It might imply every little thing,” mentioned Chastain. “I imply, it is a life achievement, much like successful the Coca Cola 600, however I put Darlington on the very prime. So, any fall race — Southern 500 race — I’ll work a very long time to win, whether or not that is this yr or someday later in my profession. I do know once I get accomplished, I will put a full physique of labor into attempting to win there, and whether or not we ever do it or not is to be decided. 

“However quick time period, it could imply, say at World Large Know-how Raceway and Bristol (the opposite two races within the Spherical of 16), I might be strolling round an entire lot lighter than if we do not.”