TALLADEGA, Ala.: Ross Chastain was oh-so-close to a podium finish at Texas Motor Speedway — until he wasn’t.
Chastain was running second when the race went into overtime. Coming down the backstretch, William Bryon ran into the back of the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet and Chastain ended up in the wall.
After leading 33 laps, a 32nd-place finish wasn’t what Chastain expected nor deserved. The 31-year-old racer declined comment following the race.
“In the moment I was super mad—and still am—that we got wrecked,” Chastain said. “It’s not how anybody wants it. But as far as moving forward, I don’t lose any sleep over it. I’m in a spot now where I know I’ve got a job and I know I’ve got a lot of races ahead of me and I’m not going to do me any good to dwell on that.
“So I’ve had a great week and a good week of just getting ready to come to Talladega. I promise you, William Byron has not been (on my mind). This is the most I’ve talked about or thought about him. So, yeah, that’s fine.”
Byron called Chastain to discuss the issue on Wednesday. Unlike his Hendrick teammate Kyle Larson, Byron hasn’t had a run-in with Chastain—and wants to keep it that way. After finishing third last Sunday Byron said the wreck transpired due to “a big run” he had on Chastain.
“Ross and I race really well, and I didn’t want to wreck him there, but he blocked me late, which is understood,” Byron said. “It’s racing at the end, but I was already there and unfortunately, we made enough contact to where it got him squirrelly and it happened.
“So, I hate that that happened, but it’s the last lap and I had the run so I am going to just take the run. I didn’t expect it, but I don’t want to do that to a fellow Chevy guy, and we always race really well.”
Six days later, Chastain wants to put the incident behind him.
“There’s no words I have right now,” Chastain said. “I just don’t. I don’t think that way. I don’t dwell on it. If I dwelled on all the bad races, y’all wouldn’t see me here cause early in my career I had given up.
“There were times where I would have celebrated a low 30th place finish. Just not when you’re going to run second.”
While Chastain didn’t reveal the crux of the conversation with Byron, he had a solid grasp of what occurred on the track through the use of data and briefing from his core staff.
“I dissect the whole race,” Chastain said. “I’ve got a team that preps me on it before I come out of the care center. I’ve got a good understanding of the outside view. I know what I felt in the car. I know what my intention was. I know what I was intending to do off of Turn 2 and I can see and hear from William what his intention was.
“After that, it’s over and the car wasn’t torn up. Just bumper damage. No suspension. So that’s good because there’s some race winning parts on that car that we’ve won with before and we’ll be able to keep bringing them back and hopefully keep winning. So that’s all I care about.”
Chastain dropped out of the top 10 in the NASCAR Cup standings following his wreck at Texas. A solid day at Talladega Superspeedway, could quickly turn his season around. Although his teammate Daniel Suarez won at Atlanta Motor Speedway in February, Chastain is still searching for his first win of 2024.
In his first season with Trackhouse, Chastain won the 2022 Geico 500 here at the 2.66-mile track. But the driver is pragmatic enough to know that anything can happen over 500 miles at Talladega.
“Yeah, it’s pretty wild,” Chastain said. “I see that trophy just rolled through behind y’all and I get really excited. I also know that I could be backwards in the grass at 200-mile-an-hour, any lap. And as long as I can get some tires on the thing and get back to pit road—which is harder now with this car—I still have a shot.
“When we won, I sped on pit road. We went laps down. There were a lot of things that went wrong and still cycled up there. Trackhouse cars handled really well in the draft. They push really well. They tend to get pushed pretty well. We’ll go learn.
“I’ve definitely walked out or driven out of this place upset way more than happy, but it’s that one happy moment that drives me to enjoy this place and the opportunity I have. If we’re backwards, we don’t hit anything too hard, I’ll smile. And if I can get back to the pit stall then hang on, we’re going to fire it back up in there.”
Follow Lee Spencer on Twitter @CandiceSpencer or email her at: [email protected].
