April 13, 2025
Trackhouse Racing's Ross Chastain obtained a starting position of 35th after qualifying for the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. This will be the fifth time in his Cup career that Chastain will start 30th or lower in a race at Bristol. In nine previous races at the last great coliseum, Chastain has four top-20 finishes, which all came during his last five appearances at the site. Through eight races so far in the 2025 season, Chastain has six finishes of 12th or better. In practice, Chastain ranked 36th in overall lap averages while displaying top-20 speeds in the 15 and 20 consecutive lap average categories. Chastain looked off in practice but has been solid at Bristol in the last few years, obtained favorable results this season, and has plenty of upside this week. DFS players should utilize the driver of the No. 1 Chevrolet this week in all formats, as he is someone who can compete for a top-20 finish.
--Sean Engel - RotoBallerSource: DriverAverages.com
April 7, 2025
Ross Chastain has a history of qualifying poorly at Darlington and getting good finishes, and that continued again in Sunday's race as he started 25th before eventually finishing seventh. He had just worked his way into the top 10 for the first time in the middle of Stage 2 when he got trapped a lap down after pitting right before a caution came out. Although he was able to take the wave-around, he was unable to make much progress because he had older tires than the leaders. However, he slowly advanced from 15th to ninth in Stage 3 before grabbing two positions on the race-ending restart. Despite not scoring any stage points, he still moved from 19 points to 31 points above the playoff cut line and broke his tie for 12th in points with Chase Briscoe.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
April 6, 2025
Ross Chastain has never won at Darlington, but that does not reflect how well he has run, as he has led 134 laps at the track. Oddly, 119 of those laps led came in two races he crashed out of. More typically, Chastain qualifies poorly and gains numerous positions in the field, as he did in the 2021, 2023, and 2024 Southern 500s, when he qualified worse than 20th every single time and earned top-five finishes. Chastain's 25th-place starting position on Sunday is very commensurate with that, so the odds look good that if he doesn't crash or suffer any kind of bad luck, he's definitely one of the absolute best options to start in this race. The only real argument is that he's never made a charge like that in the spring race, but his Southern 500 performances should likely carry over to the spring race eventually.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
March 31, 2025
Ross Chastain had an uncharacteristically quiet run at Martinsville, finishing sixth at a track that is normally not one of his best. Although the Hail Melon from 2022 will always define his Martinsville career, this was probably his best run here as he matched his best average running position from that race but had a much higher pass differential, which probably mostly explains why he had his highest career driver rating, breaking 100 for the first time in yesterday's event. After breaking in the top ten during the pit stops on the fourth caution, he spent most of the remainder of the race in the back half of the top five, getting as high as fourth without really contending. For a driver who is such a lightning rod for controversy, these are the sorts of runs he needs if he is going to return to serious championship contention.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
RADIO
