Ross Chastain qualified for the Championship 4 in his maiden season with Trackhouse Racing less than two years ago. With five races left in the 2024 regular season, the No. 1 squad is in serious danger of missing the playoffs entirely.
The damage is the result of three consecutive results outside the top 20 heading into Sunday’s Brickyard 400 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, NBC Sports App, IMS Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Chastain was eighth in the regular-season championship standings prior to his visit to Nashville Superspeedway, Trackhouse’s temporary home.
He failed to score any stage points at a track where he had never finished outside the top five. However, through planning, No. 1 crew chief Phil Surgen put Chastain in position to challenge for the race win. In the first of five overtimes, Kyle Larson tagged Chastain entering Turn 1, causing him to back into the outside wall and ruin any hopes.
Chastain finished 22nd in the second running of the Chicago Street Course because to variable track conditions. He followed up with an early retirement at Pocono Raceway last weekend, colliding in Turn 3 on Lap 53. The 36th-place finish marked his second DNF in three events.
Meanwhile, Chris Buescher has had a strong run of finishes over the last month, including top-five finishes at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and Nashville. He surpassed Chastain in points following Pocono, putting Chastain on the brink of elimination entering Indianapolis, 27 points ahead of Bubba Wallace.
Chastain has not won since the 2023 season finale at Phoenix Raceway. And, while making the playoffs would offer him a fighting chance of progressing through the playoffs, he wants to visit Victory Lane.
“We’re here to win,” Chastain stated on Saturday in Indianapolis. “That’s what we wake up every day to do, that’s what the 150-plus people at Trackhouse and everyone with brainpower at GM and Chevrolet do — that’s why we’re in our positions, doing our jobs, and living our lives chasing wins. Even if you don’t win, this is a sport that encourages winning. So, we want to get back to it.”
Chastain understands his current condition. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that if the No. 1 team doesn’t halt the bleeding or a new winner emerges in the remaining five races, he may miss the playoffs for the first time under the Trackhouse brand.
“It’s simple math,” he explained. “If I was thinking about points, I probably wouldn’t have wrecked last week.”
If there is a new winner, the battle will move up to Buescher’s present position, 15th on the playoff grid, 17 points ahead of Chastain. Buescher is the reigning winner of three upcoming events, including Richmond, Michigan, and Daytona.
However, Buescher’s accomplishment does not guarantee him an advantage.
“Just because it worked that way for us last year, it doesn’t always translate, right?” Buescher stated. “I’ll say we have some excellent tracks coming up for us, but it hasn’t been one of those years where we felt like we weren’t competitive and then just picked up in the summer, like last year. We weren’t prepared for eight or ten races at the start of the year. That is not the case this year. We’ve done well in a variety of settings. It’s just that we need to seal the deal.”
Chastain has never won at any of the final five tracks to end the regular season. He has been competitive at Darlington Raceway and always has a chance at Daytona International Speedway. His immediate concern is Indianapolis, where he finished 30th in practice on Friday with an ill-handling racing car and will start from the 28th place.
“Death grip on the wheel [during practice], turning into Turns 1 and 3 for us,” Chastain told us. “Bleeding a lot of speed, heavy on the brakes, not confident turning into the corner, and extremely loose. I’m aware that Phil Surgen worked hard and made numerous changes. The speed will arrive. I believed we’d be two seconds off the pace given how much I was slowing down and sliding around.”
Chastain’s best Brickyard 400 finish was 17th in her three previous efforts.
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