LAS VEGAS, Nev: For the second straight week, Trackhouse Racing found themselves in contention for a win in the NASCAR Cup Series.
In Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway, it was Ross Chastain’s turn as the driver of the No. 1 ACM Awards Chevrolet enjoyed a monstrous performance that kept his car at or near the front of the field.
Even though Chastain started 18th, he immediately marched forward with his No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet and found himself on the verge of entering the top-10 at the end of Stage 1.
By Stage 2, the game was on for Chastain who muscled his way forward and took the lead from Kyle Busch at Lap 113 and led the next 24 laps before the caution waved on Lap 136 for an incident between Chase Briscoe, Austin Cindric and Brad Keselowski in Turn 4.
While losing the lead during subsequent pit stops under the yellow flag, Chastain hustled back to the lead by Lap 160 and controlled the race for the next 58 laps including winning Stage 2 to earn himself and his team a crucial Playoff point.
At the onset of Stage 3, Chastain continued to keep his No. 1 ACM Awards featuring Dolly Parton Chevrolet until green flag pit stops began approaching Lap 220. A caution for a stalled Denny Hamlin bunched up the field for the Lap 227 restart which had Chastain at the front of the field.
Despite an intense battle with Kyle Busch over the course of the next 20 laps, the handling of his race car began to deteriorate slightly which caused Chastain to give up second to a hard-charging Martin Truex.
A Lap 265 caution, however for an incident on the frontstretch between Erik Jones and Bubba Wallace allowed the deficit to leader Busch to be erased and a NASCAR overtime attempt to try dethroning his challengers and score his first career NASCAR Cup Series victory.
Chastain exited pit road in fifth behind the three Hendrick Motorsports cars of Alex Bowman, Kyle Larson and William Byron who all took two tires and Busch.
Restarting on the bottom lane, behind Busch, Chastain would use the momentum from the bottom lane to clear Truex and find himself still fifth at the white flag lap.
As the cars screamed down the backstretch for the final time, Byron’s car drifted high allowing Chastain to make the move to fourth and quickly drafting Kyle Busch for an attempt to side-draft him exiting Turn 4 with a side-by-side battle between the two coming to the checkered flag.
Chastain would edge Busch by seven-one-thousands of a second at the line to claim his first top-five since finishing third at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway last September.
While not in Victory Lane Sunday, Chastain certainly had plenty to smile about.
Dream come true,” said Chastain after the race. “This is what all the work is for. This is why we train, done our whole lives and careers, once we realize we can race at this level is to have race cars like that. Couldn’t be more proud of Trackhouse, having ACM on the car, be able to go over and hang out now tomorrow night.”
Despite the speed in his race car, Chastain said patience was his friend.
“It took a lot of patience inside the car from our fast racing,” added Chastain. “It’s tough for me to not get too aggressive, a lot of neutral thinking, and Josh Wise (Chevrolet personal trainer), and a book by Trevor Moawad really helped me today. That’s progress.”
Heading to Phoenix next weekend, Chastain jumps from 35th to 20th in the championship point standings and looks to better his 19th place showing at the Avondale, Ariz. race track last spring.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
