Ross Chastain's Hail-Mary Attempt To Make Playoffs Falls Short
3 months agoAfter Harrison Burton's win at Daytona, Ross Chastain was always going to be a playoff longshot since Trackhouse Racing has generally lacked winning speed this year. Although Chastain ran outside of the top ten for the first two stages at Darlington, his crew chief Phil Surgen made a gutsy call to have Chastain make three pit stops in the final stage to get him into the top ten. This backfired as a caution came out immediately after his second stop, but Chastain was able to take the wave-around and later stayed out of the pits to take the lead before ultimately being passed by eventual winner Chase Briscoe. After a subsequent pit stop, Chastain was only able to make it back to fifth. Chastain had probably the best season of any non-playoff driver, but ultimately his cars weren't fast enough and his many late-race crashes did him in.
Source: Racing Reference
Source: Racing Reference