Ross Chastain and the Trackhouse Racing Team had a thrilling campaign in the NASCAR Cup Series 2022 season. The #1 Chevrolet driver was the talk of the garage because of his career-best performance – scoring career’s first two wins, which propelled him into the playoffs for the first time.
With his consistent run in the playoff races, he made it into his first ever Championship Race, where Chastain finished third behind Ryan Blaney, 2022 Champion Joey Logano and runner-up in the Championship standings.
According to racer.com, Ross Chastain revealed that while racing, he focuses more on performance-based goals than just number-based goals because he feels it’s unhealthy for him. Chastain said:
“I don’t have number-based goals. I haven’t for a long time. I used to, but I’ve learned it’s not healthy for me. So, it’s not number-based, it’s just to go compete and beat these guys. Sometimes that’s fifth, sometimes that’s 12th, sometimes that’s winning.”
The Florida native also stated that number-based goals might make him too hard during bad finishes or mechanical failures. He later said that his aim will be to be on the competitive side. Chastain further said:
“Wherever that is, for me, it won’t be numbers-based. And I’m glad that I’ve built that into me because you can get so caught up if you’re on a bad stretch or have some failures mechanically or behind the wheel in crashes or bad finishes. It will snowball. I don’t know what the goals will be internally at Trackhouse, but for me, it won’t be numbers-based. It’ll be the competition side.”
However, the highlight of the season for the Watermelon man was his video-game move during the final race of Round of 8 at Martinsville Speedway. The move showed Chastain has a strong belief in himself and attitude towards racing, which will make him one of the top contenders for the sport in the coming years. The 30-year-old will look to continue the same performance in the upcoming 2023 season.
Ross Chastain is hoping to score more top-five finishes in 2023 season
Ross Chastain is not ignoring the numbers completely as he said that heading into the 2023 season, he will look to finish in the top-five. He feels that finishing in the top-five will give him more opportunities to win races. Chastain said:
“We’re taking time right now to enjoy it. But going into next year, it’ll be try to finish in the top five. If you’re finishing in the top five, you will have opportunities to win races and I feel like … we all know, if you do that consistently, you will have more chances to win.”
Ross Chastain has scored 15 top-five finishes and 21 top-10 finishes, the most by any driver in the 2022 season. He has also finished inside the top-five in the last four races of the past season.