LAS VEGAS, Nev.: Hoping to continue his good luck at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Ross Chastain came into the Pennzoil 400 with a pretty good streak of finishes.
Chastain has finished seventh or better in five of those races in six starts while driving the No. 1 Chevrolet for Trackhouse Racing.
Coming to the green flag for the start of the first stage, the Alva, Florida native would begin his day in the 19th position.
Working his way forward with an ill-handling car, Chastain tells his team that “car is a little tight. About a two out of five.”
By Lap 25, the Trackhouse Racing driver tells his team that his car is getting worse, so they opt to bring him to pit road on Lap 31.
After getting a new set of Goodyear tires, fuel, and an air adjustment, the No. 1 Kubota Orange Days Sales Event Chevrolet driver returned to the field only to have the caution flag come out while exiting the pit road, relegating him to the 27th for the restart.
“That’s not what we were looking for,” balked Chastain.
Even with that being said, Chastain drove up to the 17th place to end Stage 1.
“Still too tight but better than the first run,” he would tell his team.
With the green flag in the air, Chastain would start the second stage in the 16th position and quickly move up into the top-10.
Still battling a tight race car, the Trackhouse Racing driver would continue communicating to his team that he was “actually building tighter. Started a little better but got a little tighter.”
A caution flag flew on Lap 108, and the team brought Chastain down pit road for another set of Goodyear tires, fuel, and another air adjustment.
Hovering around the 10th, Chastain continued his drive to the front of the field when the caution flag waved in the air once again for an incident on track.
This time, the Chevrolet driver brought his car to pit road, only taking two tires and fuel, and returned to the track as the leader.
Finishing Stage 2 in third place, Chastain told the team that he had plenty of grip but lost rear grip and was tight when he lifted.
Leaving the team to once again try to adjust the balance, Chastain returned to pit road for yet another set of tires, fuel, and an adjustment and returned to the field in seventh place.
Once again, Chastain worked his way forward and into third place when another caution occurred. The team decided to take a risk, put on only right-side tires and take fuel.
Winning the race off of pit road would be short-lived as a multi-car accident broke out two laps later and put the Trackhouse Chevrolet driver in a no-win situation and a tire decision to make.
Deciding to put on the very last set of sticker tires the team has and weighing their strategy options for later on in the race, Chastain returns to the field in 24th.
With the end of the race in sight, Chastain would help to launch his fellow Trackhouse teammate Daniel Suarez to the lead.
Tearing through the field, by Lap 215, Chastain had moved his way into 10th place. He was told that he may be short on fuel but not to hold back.
With the ninth caution of the race coming out on Lap 244 and most of the field coming to pit road, the team gave their driver new left-side tires and right-side tires with one lap on them, and it paid off.
“The caution came out, and we were chatting about stuff; the pits opened, and everybody in my mirror was pitting, so I just thought we’d do what they did. To salvage what we did with scuff rights was pretty solid,” offered a frustrated yet content Chastain.
“I was fully committed to him and happy to do it.,” Chastain mentioned. “Got him a good push down the frontstretch and through the restart zone; another one into (turn) one and another one into (turn) three. We stayed connected well.”
Continuing on about the run, Chastain admitted, “It was aggressive, but it got him to the lead.
“And then he just bottomed out too hard with his car and let Josh (Berry) inside of him a couple laps into that run. Bummer because he had a better car than we did and had a shot to win. It just slipped away from us.”
Finishing the race in fifth place, Chastain continued his lucky streak at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Next up for Ross Chastain is the Straight Talk Wireless 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday, March 23. 2025 at 3:00 p.m. ET.
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