NASCAR Cup Texas
Chastain fights back to runner-up finish despite gremlins
Ross Chastain was running 30th at the start of the final stage, but somehow rebounded to finish just one position shy of the victory in Sunday's NASCAR Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway.
Nick DeGroot
Edited: Sep 25, 2023, 3:41 AM
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Chastain started the race from fifth on the grid, and appeared to have good speed throughout the race.
After finishing eighth in the second stage, the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing team abruptly lost all of their track position after Chastain stalled on pitroad.
The team was struggling with a throttle position sensor issue and Chastain suddenly found himself mired deep in the field.
"It was terrible," said Chastain of the issue. "You push the gas and it ain't got no gas. I noticed something on a few cautions like having the car off in third gear, clutching, dropped the clutch with the ignition on, and it kind of stumbled, but I thought I just had it too low of RPM.
"Then I pit, and that pitstop is when it had already failed, and it wouldn't go. I'm part throttle to get it fired, and it doesn't think I'm doing anything."
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A caution presented an opportunity to grab some track position back, with Chastain jumping back up inside the top-15 with a two-tire call. He then held onto the 11th position as the laps clicked away.
When J.J. Yeley crashed and set up a 20-lap shootout, several frontrunners decided to pit. Chastain did not, and was now set to restart inside the top-ten with the oldest left-side tires in the field.
After a chaotic finish that saw Kyle Larson crash, multiple restarts and William Byron snag the win with a daring three-wide pass, it was a surprise to all who ended up in the runner-up position.
It was Chastain, scoring his best finish since winning at Nashville back in June.
On fighting back from the sensor issue, he said: "From there they walked me through it, and basically I just had to give it a lot of throttle, so the next pit stop for our final two-tire stop was just a whole lot of throttle. I'm sure the eardrums were blown out of everybody behind our pit box, but for our Worldwide Express Chevy, we were not fast enough to run second with two tires. We were with four.
"Early in the race I thought we were one of the best cars, and I wish we could have raced with those guys. We just worked our way back with taking four tires a lot, and some bad restarts on my side, but we had the speed, and we showed it all weekend.
"We did everything we needed to do, and at this race, if you follow the chart for running position is everything that the 1 team is about, and I love it."
Ross Chastain, Trackhouse Racing, Worldwide Express Chevrolet Camaro
Photo by: Matthew T. Thacker / NKP / Motorsport Images
The impressive rebound has put Chastain 12 points clear of the elimination zone. He started the day three points out. Looking ahead to the rest of the round, how is he feeling about Talladega and the Charlotte Roval?
"I don't know about those," he said. "I only care about here, and I just want to run good at the track I'm at. We go to Talladega and the Roval, we'll just go try to perform like we did today. If it's not looking good, just what does the next lap take, what does the next breath take, and whenever we do the right things, those races, they give out the same amount of points as this one, and we'll go and race them the same way."
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