KANSAS CITY, Kan. – In his second and final NASCAR Xfinity Series start for Big Machine Racing, Ross Chastain delivered a top-five finish in Saturday afternoon’s rain-shortened Kansas Lottery 300.
For Chastain, the opportunity to pilot the No. 48 Chevrolet Camaro for Scott Borchetta was all about winning and the two-time NASCAR Xfinity Series winner certainly put himself in position to do so at the end of Stage 2, but Mother Nature rolled in and soaked the 1.5-mile speedway forcing the sanctioning body to call the race with just 93 laps complete.
“It’s been great,” said Chastain of the opportunity to drive for Big Machine Racing.
Chastain qualified 15th on Friday afternoon and from the drop of the green flag, Chastain believed he had a car worthy enough for contending for the team’s second Xfinity Series win of the season, but then Chastain said the handling shifted on an instant which immediately made his race tougher.
“Something around Lap 15-ish, we got super tight,” added Chastain. “I don’t know if it was the rubber. It was wild. I haven’t had that much of a swing in a long time.
“We had to free it up a lot on every pit stop and we almost stopped and pitted for a flat tire – I was going that slow.”
Adjustments by crew chief Patrick Donahue worked to Chastain’s advantage and throughout the remainder of the race was able to pick his way back through the field and into the top-five.
Then the rain came and ended the event 107 laps early.
“When we took off today and in practice, the first 15 laps of the race and all day yesterday, I thought we had a top-five car,” explained Chastain.
“A couple of good restarts at the end shows their capabilities but obviously we know that they are getting more and more capable of running in the top-five more often.”
Chastain believes if he would been able to have more seat time with Big Machine Racing it would have presented the opportunity to elevate him to his third career Xfinity Series victory, but with just two opportunity, he made the most of the situation and embraced a strong rebound from a top-15 effort at Darlington.
“I feel like if I could back knowing what I know now about driving their car at a mile and a half, between Darlington and here I could be better,” he said.
“That’s what is tough about having part-time drivers. The driver is a lot of times the weakest link and that was definitely the case with me these two weeks.”
The Xfinity Series regular season finale is set for Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway on Fri. Sept. 16 where ARCA points leader Nick Sanchez will make the first of his four planned Xfinity Series starts in 2022.
P5! We’ll take that. Thank you for having me the last two races @bigmchnracing! pic.twitter.com/gam5rEDn6w
— Ross Chastain (@RossChastain) September 10, 2022
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