NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C.–Following last weekend’s fiasco in the Cup race with Kyle Larson at Darlington Raceway, Ross Chastain felt fortunate to get through to Saturday at North Wilkesboro Speedway “drama-free.”
For the 30-year-old watermelon farmer from Alva, Florida, who has worked overtime to get noticed in NASCAR, old habits die hard. After more than a decade of racing in the sport’s top tours, Chastain has not only locked himself to one of the most promising organizations—Trackhouse Racing—but he also currently leads the point standings.
Still, after difficult discussions with team management and mea culpas to Hendrick, Larson and Chevrolet, Chastain acknowledged earlier in the week at North Wilkesboro that he had “to hit less things.”
Certainly, fewer run-ins would be a good start. On Monday, Trackhouse team owner Justin Marks went one step farther. During his weekly visit on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Marks confirmed he would adopt a more active approach in Chastain’s development. The former driver-turned-owner believes one of the keys to his racer’s long-term success will be managing give-and-take.
“It all just kind of fell apart at the end,” Marks said on Sirius Speedway. “(If) Ross clears Kyle, makes that pass and wins the throwback weekend at Darlington seven days after getting into a scuffle on pit road, the guy is a legend.
“He’s got the skill to do that. He’s got the ability to do that. The result was just bad. It was bad for everybody. It was bad for Hendrick. It was bad for Chevrolet. And it was bad for Trackhouse and Ross—the points leader. This has been my life. We have addressed it. We have had many conversations—some difficult conversations.
“I think the message here is we are a believer is Ross’s talent. That is obvious. He’s very fast. But he’s got some things he needs to clean up—I’ll just be totally honest. We’ve started the process of more aggressively handling that with our partners, with Ross and with our team. Not necessary because we’re mad at him, but because there’s so much opportunity here.”
Chastain’s talent is immense. In his first opportunity with a top-tier Cup team, he scored two wins and advanced to the Championship 4 last year. But the driver realizes he’s capable of so much more.
“My preparation always evolves,” Chastain said. “There’s not a week or a day that goes by that I don’t learn from the last one and learn from last week. Now, some are more public than others. And some, Justin and the upper management are more involved in than others, But every week I continue to evolve.
“I wouldn’t have made it to this level, if that wasn’t the case. So you know when they step in, I fully absorb it. I hear them. I try to be better. And I I have a great friend and an owner and Justin Marks. But he’s also my boss and he gets to tell me, so I’m good with that. I am definitely more experienced this week and know how to deal with all those conversations now than I was a week ago. I’ll only be better for it because I don’t want that. I don’t want those uncomfortable conversations.”
While Chastain is still seeking his first victory of 2023, with consistency he has maintained a position of first or second in the point standings for the last 12 weeks. Last Sunday’s wreck was the first time he crashed out of a race this season. Chastain had four crash-related DNF’s in 2022.
“I drive my No. 1 car off the hauler every week and it’s fast,” Chastain said. “It’s got speed. It’s up to us then to manage the weekend. If you look at last year to this year and just all the metrics and the things you can measure, we definitely qualified better. We’ve scored more stage points, more quality laps towards the front, not just at the ends of the races like last year, it was a lot.
“I don’t have any (tracks) that I’m not really excited to go to. I used to have them with different teams. You just knew fundamentally what their cars were built towards. You know whether they were building more downforce or less drag. It would kind of skew your thoughts. I’ve got downforce and less drag I feel like, right? I just have grip. So as long as we keep that, we keep the balance close, I don’t think I have a weak spot for us.”
Still, it’s been more than a year since Chastain has visited Victory Lane. He knows to check the win column he must live by the adage, “To finish first, first you must finish.”
“There are times where I do the right thing and there’s times where clearly I do the wrong thing,” Chastain said. “So continuing to learn and wade through that will be a part of my evolution in this sport. If I do it right, you’ll see different endings. And if I keep doing the same thing, well, then shame on me. I’m not going to say that I’m not going to make mistakes, but I’m going to keep learning.
“I was drama free in the truck race and it felt really good. So one small little snack. Now it’s time for the main course.”
Follow Lee Spencer on Twitter @CandiceSpencer.
