Ross Chastain Gets First Cup Win at COTA in a Wild Finish

The NASCAR Cup Series made its second-ever trip to the world-class Circuit of the Americas for the EchoPark Grand Prix. This is the first road course race of the schedule and the first for the new NextGen car, and it didn’t disappoint.

Ryan Blaney and Daniel Suarez led the field to the green flag, but Suarez was able to take the lead and lead the entire stage to collect his second-career stage win for stage one. While he got turned at the start of stage two and ended up finishing 24th, Trackhouse Racing put the racing world on notice with its other driver, Ross Chastain, continuing his fire-hot start to the 2022 season. Chastain battled Daytona 500 winner Austin Cindric for the stage two win until they decided to pit with three laps left in the stage. Chastain was able to get in front of Cindric as they entered the pits to give him the upper hand. While that went on, Denny Hamlin got a much-needed stage win to his struggling start to the season.

Ross Chastain showed to have a strong car for the rest of the car and worked hard to stay out in front while having a strong road racer in AJ Allmendinger putting the pressure on. Things got wild on the overtime restart as Chastain, Allmendinger and Tyler Reddick were going three-wide off of turn one. Reddick was out in front for a bit as Alex Bowman also entered the picture, but Chastain powered by Reddick through the esses of the 3.41-mile course. On the final lap, AJ Allmendinger came fighting back to give Chastain one more challenge. Allmendinger closed in going into turn 12 and had the chance as he was able to move Chastain, then Alex Bowman came out of nowhere to take the lead briefly as Chastain bumped the back of Allmendinger, sending the No. 16 into Bowman, and Allmendinger went spinning. Ross Chastain, who started out his NASCAR career 11 years ago driving for backmarker teams in the truck series, went on to get his first career Cup Series win at COTA and the first win for Justin Marks, Pitbull, and Trackhouse Racing in just their second year of operations. Chastain celebrated with a burnout, followed by his signature move, smashing a watermelon onto the ground. As he was interviewed by Regan Smith, he also picked a piece of the watermelon up and began to eat it.

“It’s insane,” Chastain said in his post-race interview. “To go up against some of the best with AJ, I mean, I know he is going to be upset with me, but we raced hard, both of us, and he owes me one. But when it comes to a Cup win, man, I can’t let that go down without a fight.”

After a few years of overperforming for smaller teams, Ross was given a big break by Chip Ganassi during the latter half of the 2018 season as he drove a few races for him, including his first Xfinity win at Las Vegas. Chastain was promoted to Ganassi’s cup team in 2021 and moved over to Trackhouse after they bought Ganassi’s team. Everything has paid off for Chastain, and this could be the first of many for him and Trackhouse. Both Trackhouse cars have been performing well to start the season, as both drivers have run up front a lot, including Suarez almost winning at Auto Club. This team has proved they’re no fluke and they are here to win races. Marks’ relationship with Chastain dates back to 2011 when Marks sold seats to Chastain to make his truck debut for Stacy Compton’s team. Chastain becomes the sixth different winner in six races in 2022, as well as the third driver to get their first cup win this season.

Trackhouse Racing has shown that they are competitive, Ross Chastain is a cup series winner and one could be coming for Daniel Suarez soon. Time will tell how many trophies this team will collect. The NASCAR Cup Series heads next to Richmond Raceway on April 3rd at 3:30 pm EST.