ROOKLYN, Mich.: Following a lackluster July, Ross Chastain might have found the spark he needs to jumpstart a run in the NASCAR Cup Playoffs.
Chastain qualified second on Saturday for the FireKeepers Casino 400—his best performance in time trials since he won the pole at Nashville Superspeedway in late June and went on to win the race.
Considering Chastain had never qualified better than 22nd at the two-mile track, a front-row start could trigger a well-needed rebound for the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing team.
“For our Jockey Chevy, it’s such an improvement from last year,” Chastain said. “Everyone at Chevrolet, GM and the tire group worked to get a handle on this stagger from when we came last year and how far we missed it until now.
“The work we are all putting in with the key partners and at the new tech center is absolutely incredible. I can’t thank them enough and everyone at Trackhouse. That’s a really fast lap time for this track.”
Chastain led 29 laps in last year’s visit to the Irish Hills but finished 24th. Still, in five Michigan starts, 2022 proved to be his best result. Chastain’s average finish at MIS is 29.8.
What is more worrisome is not only Chastain’s performance over the past month but Trackhouse’s as a whole. After a breakout season for both Chastain and Daniel Suarez in 2022, the results simply haven’t materialized of late for the Trackhouse teammates.
The company kicked off July with a victory in the inaugural Chicago Street Race with Shane Van Gisbergen in his only NASCAR start to date. However, the only other top five in the last month was a second-place by Suarez at Atlanta. The No. 99 team has been rife with misfortune, and slowly the chasm between Suarez and the Playoffs has grown.
While Chastain led the point standings for seven weeks during the first half of the regular season, the 30-year-old racer has slipped to seventh after an average finish of 23.4 in July. After a convincing win at Nashville, Chastain hasn’t led a lap since.
“I think part of it is just speed,” Chastain said. “We’ve been off on balance and we just can’t quite get the balance where we need to go fast. The window for being off and still having speed is closing with this new car.
“A year ago with the balance we have, I think we were actually a step better than we were a year ago, but everybody else like four steps better. So we got to get the balance closer, which will allow for more throttle.”
Although Michigan is an anomaly among the remaining tracks on the schedule, there are certain trends Chastain is searching for this weekend and beyond with his race cars.
“Getting the balance closer, unloading and having it there,” Chastain said. “It’s just so much on throttle time at a lot of these style mile-and-a-half-and-up tracks with banking (the car has) got to be turning good enough. But rear grip and just making sure our tools are working in our preparation to let me carry more throttle than the next guy.”
Team owner Justin Marks has continued with his “Trackhouse Tuesdays” to maintain morale for the organization—even through the tough times. Last week the company took over Charlotte Motor Speedway for a night out with their families that included racing school buses on the Legends track.
“Watching Justin marks go up on two wheels and one of our mechanics on the 1 car plow it into the concrete pit wall—yeah, we had a blast out there,” Chastain said. “Everybody was down in the Turn 4 suite. We had dinner and bounce houses for all the kids. They were up on the roof and it was really, really awesome watching those guys banging to each other in the school buses.”
As for the remaining four races before the Playoffs, Chastain says it will be “business as usual” for the No. 1 team.
“We’ve kept the same group together,” Chastain said. “This is year three from the 42 car to the 1—now year two (in the No.1 Chevrolet) . It’s just kind of us going about our business and building out our tools.”
Follow Lee Spencer on Twitter @CandiceSpencer or email her at: [email protected].
