Ross Chastain is known for aggressive driving, having caused friction earlier this season with some of his fellow drivers, including Denny Hamlin, who wasn’t pleased with his style.
He knows better at Bristol.
“I learned in my very first trip to Bristol that I cannot be overly aggressive,” Chastain said. “My first practice session in the Trucks Series in 2011 I tried to hustle a truck a lot in my last couple of laps and really feel it. I was pretty confident going in, spun around and hit the wall and continued to hit stuff all throughout the race in a backup truck.
“It was a humbling moment, I learned to not to try to take anything from the track, it will chew me up and spit me out.”
Chastain will get another opportunity to test his skills at the “World’s Fastest Half-Mile” when the Bass Pro Shops Night Race returns to Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday night, a race that has been called one of the crown jewels of the sport. He certainly agrees, noting the transition from the dirt surface in the spring to the concrete in the fall.
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“It is not for the shiny diamond bling attributes of it, although it was in those years when that place was full, camera flashes were popping and people were taking pictures,” said Chastain, who enters the race ninth in the NASCAR Cup Series points standings. “It wasn’t a jewel to look at, but it is a crown jewel for just how cool it is.
“Just to rip laps there, it is so fast, so much banking. Just to walk up the banking is hard enough in itself, let alone 500 laps and stay out of the wall. In the spring it is not the shiniest thing, it is pretty dirty, but it is a crown jewel just for the simple fact that it is Bristol.”
After driving the No. 42 car last season, Chastain is now working for No. 1 Trackhouse Racing, which purchased the NASCAR operations of Chip Ganassi Racing after last season. He has had a terrific year, recording wins in Texas and Talledega over a five-race span, along with accumulating 10 Top-5 finishes and 16 in the Top-10, including seventh on Sunday in Kansas.
That was his first single-digit finish in the last eight races as the competition for the 16 playoff spots heated up.
“It does that every year. It doesn’t matter what round or where we are at or what kind of track,” said Chastain, who has also won four NASCAR Truck Series and two Xfinity Series races. “We prepare all year and these are some of the top teams and people in their positions in the sport and in the country and the world, they are all here.
“To see the issues that we all have is wild, but we will go race, go fight it through just like everybody else.
He finished 14th last season in the Night Race in Bristol. He is looking for better results this weekend.
“It was a bit of struggle really. At this point in the season last year the 42 car we had was really good, had good speed in a lot of places,” said Chastain, in a zoom call last week. “We came here really expecting to contend in the top 5 and we just never were quite good enough. I can remember I could see the Top 5, but I couldn’t quite get there. We are looking for a little more this year.”
He struggled to a 33rd place finish in the spring at the Bristol Dirt Race in the Next Gen car. He was quick to acknowledge that dirt described the place during that event. It will be cleaner on Saturday.
“Fast. Just fast. I really like what they have done with the place. They have cleaned it up, it was pretty dirty in the spring, just a real dirty place and I am just really proud of the effort to get it cleaned up,” Chastain said. “I like concrete Bristol a whole lot better so just the shear feeling of speed and ripping around the top or the bottom or the middle, just feeling that is just so cool to me.”
The first two playoff races were won by non-playoff contenders – Erik Jones and Bubba Wallace – meaning only one of 16 drivers have earned a berth into the second playoff round. Twelve will advance, with four eliminated after Saturday night’s race. Eighteen different drivers have won races in the first year of the Next Gen era.
“It has changed the sport unlike I have ever seen,” said Chastain, who celebrated his first win at Texas this season by smashing a watermelon, a homage to his family, who own a watermelon farm in Alva, Fla. “I have only been around for 11 years now, but watching the sport as long as I can remember and I have looked back at some old history and old videos.”
“I see even back when they raced on the beach, there were cars that were just flat out built better. Now we all get the car basically on a pallet in boxes and we assemble them. This has been a shift and a restructuring of the sport like we have never seen. For better or worse, we all have the same car and it is about building a better car out of the same parts.”
Chastain’s ultimate goal, like everyone else, is to win the Cup Series championship. He knows the primary obstacle to finishing on top in November is very close to home. He is still learning, missing out on another three wins with second place finishes this season, twice in Atlanta and once in Phoenix.
“Myself. I want to continue to grow my role in this sport and my position in the Trackhouse No. 1 car,” he said. “There are mistakes I have made and things that I have not learned yet. If I could come back and redo it all after Phoenix and run this season again in the same scenario and have the same situation, I would ultimately make better decisions.
“As I learn and evolve in my career I think that will get better with time so I think myself.”
Chastain was thrilled when NASCAR made the announcement last week that the All-Star Race in 2023 will be held at revived North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Carolina.
“I am shocked, I can’t believe they pulled it off. I have driven by there and just seen the trees growing up everywhere and not where they are supposed to be, but I have never seen the [track], I have never raced on it obviously and I have just never experienced it,” he said. “Just getting to experience it is awesome. There is a reason they stopped racing there, but they revitalized it, it is alive again and we are going to go experience it and race it and look at some cool memories of the sport’s past.”
The 29-year-old will always recall his first race as a fan in Bristol.
“I remember my first one that I went to. I had been racing as a kid, but not at NASCAR’s level,” he said. “We went up and watched it and I just remember sitting down in turn one and two and watching them whip around. Now to think that is me out there is incredible.”
Now he’s back, ready to stay out of trouble and focused on finishing first.
“Ya’ll have seen it, it is hard for me to stay out of trouble just in general, so let alone go to Bristol, one of our smallest tracks, and run 500 laps,’ he said, with a smile. “High on the priority list is to stay out of the news.”