There are races that end with fireworks, burnouts, and enough confetti to choke a shop vacuum.
And then there are races like Saturday at Charlotte Motor Speedway, which ended late in a foggy North Carolina night with everyone sitting around for more than four hours wondering if they’d accidentally wandered into an airport delay lounge with stock cars.
When it was finally over — or more accurately, when NASCAR finally decided enough dampness was enough dampness — it was Ross Chastain standing on top after winning a weather-shortened NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race for JR Motorsports.
And honestly, by the end of the evening, simply surviving Charlotte felt like an achievement worthy of a small parade and at least one reasonably priced bourbon.
The race officially ended under caution after Stage 2 following a red flag that lasted four hours and 21 minutes because Mother Nature apparently looked at the radar and decided to dump an entire aquarium on the 1.5-mile track. NASCAR parked the field on Lap 92 with mist and fog hanging over the speedway like something out of a low-budget horror film.
Chastain was leading when the caution came out, and it didn’t take long before NASCAR threw in the very damp towel and made it official.
Behind Chastain, Jesse Love finished second, followed by Austin Hill, William Sawalich, and Corey Day. The rest of the top 10 included Connor Zilisch, Ryan Sieg, Cole Custer, Carson Kvapil, and Rajah Caruth.
Of course, before the weather swallowed the evening whole, Charlotte still managed to provide the sort of chaos NASCAR treats as a recreational activity.
Shortly after the race resumed from the lengthy weather delay, a multicar wreck erupted on Lap 52 when Sheldon Creed and Brandon Jones made contact entering Turn 3. Jones spun left, collecting teammate Brent Crews and Harrison Burton before all three slammed the outside wall in the kind of synchronized destruction stock car racing somehow turns into an art form.
Afterward, Chastain reflected on finally getting his chance to drive for JRM at Charlotte, and the emotion in his voice carried more weight than the trophy itself.
“I’ll start with us and this team,” said Chastain after being told he was the winner. “I first watched a JRM drive by me here at Charlotte in 2014, and I decided right then that I wanted to get in one, and it took me until 2025 to get in one … that’s a testament to just continuing to work, and I’ve asked. Couldn’t raise the funds, or they were full.”
Love, meanwhile, was not exactly in the mood to send NASCAR Race Control a thank-you card.
“I’m mad, so I think it’s a complete joke, handling it how they handled it,” said Love. “I was really mad when they got out of the car for obvious reasons … Then I kind of realized, if this week has taught us anything, this all doesn’t matter as much as we think it does. There’s things way more important than a trophy. As much as I am angry and confused and upset, I also again realize there’s a lot of hurt people right now. There’s things so much bigger than racing. I think we find some okay-ness in that. I’m just feeling so hard for Brexton, Lennix, Samantha, the parents, and everyone at RCR. That’s where the hurt and the anger comes from, right? Wanting to win for those people.”
And that, really, was the strange heartbeat of the entire evening.
Yes, there was frustration. Yes, there was confusion. Yes, NASCAR somehow managed to turn a race into something that felt longer than a congressional hearing. But hanging over all of it was the reminder that racing, for all its noise and swagger and chest-thumping bravado, can suddenly become very small when real life barges into the garage.
Next up for the series is the Sports Illustrated Resorts 250 at Nashville Superspeedway on May 30. Hopefully with less fog. And preferably without needing Noah’s Ark parked in the infield.
RACE RESULTS
Greg was a writer for DriveTribe supporting Amazon's The Grand Tour and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, and a Masters degree in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek and a regular contributor to Forbes.