Ross Chastain comes to Bristol Motor Speedway ranked high enough in the Playoff standings that he should reasonably expect to transfer into the second round following Saturday night’s cutoff race.
But he acknowledges it’s been a learning progression at the sport’s traditionally high-action, high-banked short track, where he’s finished 35th or worse in five of his 10 starts.
Chastain, driver of the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet, goes into the Bass Pro Shops Night Race ranked 11th among the 16 Playoff drivers. He holds a 19-point edge on 13th place Austin Dillon with only the top 12 racers remaining championship eligible following Saturday night’s checkered flag.
Since his victory in Charlotte’s Coca-Cola 600 in May, Chastain has posted six finishes of 11th or better.
“I think it puts us in a spot where we are fast enough to stay above the cut line, but a failure or an error, it’s easy to hit the wall here,” Chastain said. “They’ve painted them (the walls) back to their old all-black. They’re waiting on you if you make a mistake, so we’ve got 500 laps to get through.”
Although Chastain has never won—and never led a lap—at Bristol, the encouraging thing is that two of his three career top-10 finishes at the track have come in the last two visits. And he scored a career-best sixth-place effort here in the 2022 fall race.
“I love the track, and I love driving up here,” Chastain said. “I love driving on it, even when I’ve been slow and was really bummed. … I don’t know if it’s coming together or not, but Phil Surgen (crew chief) has been giving me good race cars here, and we need that next step to put us really in contention to try to win.
“We’ve taken the step to get to the top 10, and we want to keep that going and take the next one.”
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