Ross Chastain has been knocking at the door of victory lane all season in the NASCAR Cup Series.
On Sunday, he kicked the door open and walked right through it.
In a wild, pushing and shoving final lap, Chastain came away with his first career series win at the Circuit of the Americas road course in Austin, Texas.
The 29-year-old watermelon farmer from Alva, Florida led the most laps on the day, pacing the field four times for 31 laps. For the latter half of the race, he had road course veteran A.J. Allmendinger hot on his heels, looking for one little slip to take the race away.
When the race went into overtime due to a late caution, it looked like Allmendinger had his opportunity, as he shoved Chastain out of the way to take the lead with about half a lap to go.
Allmendinger held the lead until a couple of turns to go, when Alex Bowman moved in to challenge, running three wide for the lead.
That was when Chastain repaid the earlier shove from Allmendinger, making contact with Allmendinger’s Chevrolet, sending him into Bowman’s car on the outside. Allmendinger spun, Bowman ran wide and Chastain passed both to retake the lead.
From there, Chastain drove to his first career series win 121st career start, marking the third first time winner in the first six races of the 2022 NCS season.
“It’s insane,” Chastain said. “To go up against some of the best with A.J. (Allmendinger) – 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.”
Chastain celebrated by smashing a watermelon on the track in front of the main grandstands, followed by eating pieces of the melon during his post-race interview.
“It’s never tasted sweeter, I got to tell you,” said Chastain. “I don’t know. I don’t know how we got back by. I was so worried about A.J. on the second-to-last restart that I let Tyler (Reddick) drive right by both of us. And A.J. is so good. I’ve learned so much from him. And it was like how do you go beat the guy? He taught me so much. I’ve learned so much from so many people from 417 Speedway back home with my dad. I was thinking about on those late restarts, my dad used to make me race on old tires, and back then I was not going to win. It was in my head before I even started. It crossed my mind, like, ‘we’re not going to win, we’re on old tires,’ but I couldn’t think that way. I thought neutral. Chevrolet, everything they do for me gave me the tools to try to go execute and we did it.”
It’s also the first win for Trackhouse Racing in the team’s first season.
“So, Justin Marks, Trackhouse, AdventHealth, the Moose,” said Chastain. “A million Moose members, they better be celebrating tonight all across the country and the world. Phil Surgen (Crew Chief), man. He is so good. People don’t know how good this group is. I can’t believe Justin Marks hired me to drive this car.”
“This was an ambitious thing to sort of dream up, and I asked a lot of people that had a lot of experience in this sport and seen a lot of teams come and go to trust me and to commit to Trackhouse,” said team owner Justin Marks. “And so to be here not even — not even a year and a half really into our existence, I’m just proud of everybody that committed.”
Meanwhile, Allmendinger came up short of his third career series victory.
“At the end of the day each person has to make the move that they’re comfortable with, and that’s fine,” said Allmendinger, who ended up with a 33rd place finish. “So we’ll — at the end of the day it’s — we know we had a shot to win the race. It’s tough to win a Cup race, so when you put yourself in a position to legitimately run up front all day and have a shot to win it, it’s a pretty great day. Unfortunately, just we needed about two more corners.”
Bowman recovered from the last lap contact to follow Chastain across the finish line in second.
“We had a really fast Ally Chevrolet Camaro and I have been trying to do a better job as a race car driver at these road courses and I felt like from where I started the weekend, we accomplished that,” said Bowman. “So, thanks to Greg (Ives – Crew Chief) and all the guys and really happy for Ross (Chastain) in getting his first win.”
Christopher Bell came home in third, with Chase Elliott in fourth, and Tyler Reddick in fifth.
Ryan Blaney, Martin Truex, Jr., Austin Cindric, Erik Jones, and Austin Dillon rounded out the top 10.
NASCAR Cup Series
Circuit of The Americas – Austin, TX
EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix – March 27, 2022
1. (16) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 69.
2. (5) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 69.
3. (7) Christopher Bell, Toyota, 69.
4. (12) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 69.
5. (4) Tyler Reddick, Chevrolet, 69.
6. (1) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 69.
7. (17) Martin Truex, Jr., Toyota, 69.
8. (10) Austin Cindric #, Ford, 69.
9. (30) Erik Jones, Chevrolet, 69.
10. (21) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 69.
11. (18) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 69.
12. (24) William Byron, Chevrolet, 69.
13. (27) Michael McDowell, Ford, 69.
14. (26) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 69.
15. (9) Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 69.
16. (29) Todd Gilliland #, Ford, 69.
17. (19) Harrison Burton #, Ford, 69.
18. (8) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 69.
19. (25) Aric Almirola, Ford, 69.
20. (33) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 69.
21. (22) Chris Buescher, Ford, 69.
22. (34) Josh Bilicki(i), Chevrolet, 69.
23. (3) Cole Custer, Ford, 69.
24. (2) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 69.
25. (31) Kaz Grala(i), Chevrolet, 69.
26. (37) Boris Said, Ford, 69.
27. (35) Cody Ware, Ford, 69.
28. (15) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 69.
29. (13) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 69.
30. (14) Chase Briscoe, Ford, 69.
31. (6) Joey Logano, Ford, 69.
32. (11) Kurt Busch, Toyota, 69.
33. (20) A.J. Allmendinger(i), Chevrolet, 68.
34. (36) Loris Hezemans(i), Ford, Rear Gear, 62.
35. (38) Joey Hand, Ford, Suspension, 60.
36. (32) Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet, Engine, 57.
37. (28) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Chevrolet, Drivetrain, 52.
38. (23) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, Suspension, 44.
39. (39) Andy Lally(i), Ford, Suspension, 19.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 70.253 mph.
Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 20 Mins, 57 Secs. Margin of Victory: 1.331 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 9 for 13 laps.
Lead Changes: 13 among 9 drivers.
Lap Leaders: D. Suarez 1-15;R. Blaney 16;A. Cindric # 17-27;D. Hamlin 28-30;J. Logano 31-32;R. Chastain 33-41;A. Allmendinger(i) 42;R. Chastain 43-44;C. Briscoe 45-46;R. Chastain 47-64;A. Allmendinger(i) 65;T. Reddick 66-67;R. Chastain 68-69.
Leaders Summary: (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led) Ross Chastain 4 times for 31 laps; Daniel Suarez 1 time for 15 laps; Austin Cindric # 1 time for 11 laps; Denny Hamlin 1 time for 3 laps; Chase Briscoe 1 time for 2 laps; AJ Allmendinger(i) 2 times for 2 laps; Joey Logano 1 time for 2 laps; Tyler Reddick 1 time for 2 laps; Ryan Blaney 1 time for 1 lap.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 99,12,48,22,5,31,9,14,21,2
Stage #2 Top Ten: 11,18,22,12,10,3,21,1,2,23
Playoff Standings: 1. Alex Bowman – 183 (1 Win); 2. Ross Chastain – 180 (1 Win); 3. William Byron – 175 (1 Win); 4. Chase Briscoe – 166 (1 Win); 5. Austin Cindric – 153 (1 Win); 6. Kyle Larson – 149 (1 Win); 7. Chase Elliott – 208; 8. Ryan Blaney – 195; 9. Joey Logano – 185; 10. Martin Truex, Jr. – 172; 11. Aric Almirola – 168; 12. Tyler Reddick – 158; 13. Kyle Busch – 154; 14. Kurt Busch – 153; 15. Kevin Harvick – 153; 16. Daniel Suarez – 150.
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series
