Ross Chastain Wins the GEICO 500 at Talladega

The NASCAR Cup Series made its first of two stops at the 2.5-Mile Superspeedway in Talladega, Alabama for the GEICO 500.

On the final lap, there was a massive shuffle coming off turn four as Erik Jones in the No. 43 Petty-GMS Chevrolet was leading and chasing his first win since 2019. As the pack came off of turn four, Jones was too far out in front of the draft, causing Kyle Larson to dash past Jones. Jones however put the block on Larson, which allowed for Ross Chastain to stick with the inside line and charge past Jones and Larson to earn his second career win and his second of the season at Talladega, prompting a Watermelon smash during celebrations. Chastain joins William Byron as the second driver to win multiple races in 2022, where Chastain got his first win at Circuit of the Americas. Chastain only led one lap, that being the final lap, the one that counted.

“Holy cow,” Chastain said in his post-race interview. “I’m always the one going to the top too early, making the mistake. There at the end, it was like eight to go, I was like, I’m not going up there again. I did that a couple times today. I was like, I’ll just ride on the bottom.”

“I have no idea, they kept going up and then they kept getting out of the way!” Chastain added, enjoying a piece of the watermelon he had just smashed.

A crash occurred coming to the checkered flag as Kyle Larson, who earned his first career superspeedway top 5, got into Kurt Busch, causing Busch to slam into the wall and then clip into his teammate Bubba Wallace as he came back down. Both 23XI Racing cars looked strong but ended in heartbreak as both cars wrecked at the checkered flag.

“Looking back, I wish I would have stayed at the bottom and let the 1 push me. I didn’t realize they were coming with that much speed,” Erik Jones said, who ended up finishing sixth. “But try to defend on the 5, you’re too far ahead already right here. Obviously, a defense on the 5 kind of gives the door to the 1.”

Had Jones won, it would’ve been the first win for the iconic Petty No. 43 since the 2014 Coke Zero 400 when Aric Almirola earned his first of three career wins.

Chastain’s win at Talladega continues a magical run we are seeing from Trackhouse Racing. A team in just its second season, owned by Justin Marks and Pitbull, that scored their best finish at Nashville in 2021 with a seventh-place finish. Trackhouse really put the world on notice with the acquiring of Chip Ganassi Racing, expanding to a two-car operation, and adding Ross Chastain to be teammates alongside Daniel Suarez. With Chastain’s success and solid runs by Daniel Suarez, the team has added multiple sponsors to the fold that fills up the sponsor inventory for all of 2022 likely also 2023.

The race also went green for the entirety of stage three for a total of 63 laps, the longest a superspeedway race has gone to the end since the 2004 Pepsi 400 at Daytona. The NASCAR Cup Series heads next to the Monster Mile at Dover Motor Speedway on Sunday, May 1st at 3:00 PM EST.