TALLADEGA, Ala. – Last year, Ross Chastain created an indelible memory in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.
This year, his Playoff performance may prove to be entirely forgettable.
As the first stage of Sunday’s YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway neared its close, the Chevrolet of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. sputtered on the backstretch, short on fuel. Stenhouse pulled out of line toward the top of the 2.66-mile speedway, with Kyle Busch’s No. 8 Chevy following him.
As those two cars slowed in the top lane, Chastain saw an opportunity. He tried to shoot a gap to the left of Busch and Stenhouse, but the hole closed quickly. After slight contact with Busch’s car, Chastain’s No. 1 Camaro spun out of control, bounced off the outside wall and clipped the right front of Christopher Bell’s No. 20 Toyota.
The damage to Chastain’s car was terminal, and the damage to his chances for advancement to the Round of 8 perhaps equally dire.
As a consequence, last year’s runner-up for the Cup title, whose banzai run against the outside wall in Turns 3 and 4 at Martinsville was an unquestioned highlight of the Playoffs, is in danger of elimination after next Sunday’s race at the Charlotte Roval.
“I saw them slow and tagging the fence,” Chastain said of the wreck that knocked him out of the YellaWood 500 in 38th (last) place. “They were that much slower. I should have just stayed in behind them.
“Four-wide obviously was not the right call. I saw a hole and just tried to slide through there—wish I wouldn’t have… It’s just the way it goes. Nothing personal with it. I don’t take any of this personally here. I could have stayed on the bottom a few laps earlier probably and would have been safer.
“I just had a couple of cars in my lap there, and I went for the gap. Obviously, I wish I would have lifted now, but I’ll study that and be better for next time.”
In a race won by Ryan Blaney, attrition helped Chastain’s situation, but not enough to put the Trackhouse Racing driver above the cut line for the Round of 8. Tied with Bubba Wallace for 10th in the Playoff standings, Chastain trails eighth-place Brad Keselowski by nine points for the final spot in the next round.
That being the case, the author of the move dubbed the “Hail Melon” last year at Martinsville might see his Playoff hopes die on the vine this season.
Chastain faces an uphill battle at the Roval. In four starts at the 2.28-mile, 17-turn road course, Chastain has posted a best finish of 22nd and an average result of 26.5. He was 37th in last year’s Playoff race.
“We keep putting a lot of work into turning left and right,” Chastain said. “We’ll see how it pays off next week.
Follow Lee Spencer on Twitter @CandiceSpencer or email her at: [email protected].
