After turning an impressive 16th quickest lap during the first NASCAR XFINITY Series practice session for Saturday afternoon’s Boyd Gaming 300 at Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway, Ross Chastain, and his JD Motorsports team suffered a setback just minutes into the final session, a half-hour later.
As Chastain exited pit road and entering the racetrack, his engine seized sending his No. 4 teamjdmotorsports.com Chevrolet back to the garage where the team quickly determined that a backup motor would be needed.
Unable to get the replacement engine installed to complete Friday afternoon’s practice session, the Alva, Florida native will qualify for tomorrow’s third NASCAR XFINITY Series race of the season with just two laps complete around the 1.5-mile speedway this weekend.
“It’s unfortunate that it happened,” says Chastain. “But, we’re thankful it happened Friday and not Saturday. Getting two laps of practice is never ideal but it makes it tough for me never running an XFINITY race here before. I’ll learn a lot throughout the race.”
Despite the minimal track time, Chastain feels confident about his racecar and posting another solid finish for his 10th career NXS start. While lacking track time in an XFINITY car, the Floridian, however, does have two starts in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series including a 14th place finish for Brad Keselowski Racing in 2013.
Chastain is off to a solid start in his first full season of XFINITY Series competition. After a solid ninth place performance at Daytona (Fla.) Speedway two weeks ago, the team posted mediocre results in the first mile-and-a-half last Saturday at Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway where he finished 24th.
Still, the 22-year old sits ninth in the standings, just 28 points out of the lead.
JD Motorsports with Gary Keller will field three cars for Saturday’s race with teammates Landon Cassill and Harrison Rhodes.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
