Ross Chastain: From watermelon farmer to legitimate potential NASCAR Cup champion
Ross Chastain may have come up short in his quest to win the NASCAR Cup Series title, but he still had a bright smile following Sunday’s race at Phoenix.
Not only was his second-place finish his best in the Cup Series standings - it was his best in any NASCAR series since his debut in 2011.
“That was a heck of a drive by us,” Chastain said. “Who had the No. 1 car second in points on their bingo card (before the season began) on February 1?
“This is pretty wild. This is a continuation of a lot of people believing in me. To build everything together, to come drive this car, there are so many team owners and so many crew members that have put in the work. It’s pretty wild to fight for a Cup Series championship and to have a car fast enough to chase them down to the end.”
Not only was his finish something to be proud of, but it was also the result of over a decade of hard work. Chastain is in no way a newcomer to NASCAR racing, but success has only recently arrived to the 29-year-old driver who is a watermelon farmer in the offseason.
Like many drivers, Chastain’s racing career began in late models. Starting at only 12 years old, he won many races on the short tracks of his home state of Florida.
But when it was time to move up to NASCAR’s higher levels, Chastain had to wait to find success.
His first national series start came in a Camping World Truck Series race at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, where he finished a respectable 10th.
However, Chastain spent the next several seasons in Trucks and the NASCAR Xfinity Series driving for underfunded teams. He was hardly a household name, and often was just another also-ran, week in and week out.
Even in his first few Cup Seasons, Chastain continued to run in uncompetitive equipment, driving for the now-defunct Premium Motorsports.
But patience eventually began to pay off for Chastian. In 2018, he signed a part-time Xfinity Series contract to drive for Chip Ganassi Racing and scored his first national series win at Las Vegas.
Chastain returned to Ganassi in 2021, and before the 2022 season began, Ganassi sold the team to former racer Justin Marks and rapper Pitbull. The name changed to Trackhouse Racing, but Chastain was retained as one of the drivers.
This year proved to be Chastain’s best yet. He collected both his and Trackhouse’s first Cup Series win at Circuit of the Americas in March and backed it up with another victory at Talladega a month later.
Last weekend at Martinsville, he advanced to the Championship Four with a daring “video game move.” Running 10th with one lap to go, Chastain drove his Chevrolet against the wall in Turns 3 and 4 and floored it, making up five positions and passing rival Denny Hamlin at the finish line to score the final transfer spot and preventing Hamlin -- an expected championship contender -- from advancing to the Championship 4 season finale Sunday.
Chastain did not try to pull a similar move at Phoenix, and came up just short to eventual winner Joey Logano and his teammate Ryan Blaney, who finished second, one spot ahead of Chastain.
But if Sunday and the 2022 season as a whole has taught Chastain anything, it’s that he has emerged to become a legitimate title contender.
“For our first go at it to race with the teams we’re racing with, to our first go at it as Trackhouse is a dream come true,” Chastain said. “This is our team. We’re going to keep building this thing.
"We’re going to be here more years than not fighting for this thing. I couldn’t be prouder to do it with anybody else.”