NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series driver Ross Chastain is on the short end of the race for one of the spots in the Championship 4 event at Homestead-Miami Speedway—at least for the time being.
With the Playoff field to be cut from six drivers to four two weeks hence at ISM Raceway at Phoenix, Chastain is sixth in the standings but only two points behind fourth-place Matt Crafton.
Though Chastain has already signed with Kaulig Racing to compete for the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship next year, he hasn’t yet contemplated the possibility of becoming the first driver to win NASCAR’s triple crown—championships in each of the top three touring series.
“That’s nowhere on my radar,” Chastain said on Friday at Martinsville Speedway. “I’ve got rolling goals that always evolve, and they haven’t evolved to there yet.”
First on the long list a championship for Niece Motorsports.
“I just want to win anything and everything,” Chastain said. “I want to win the wheelbarrow races they have at Daytona—it doesn’t matter. I also know this opportunity with Niece Motorsports and what (owner) Al Niece has provided… (general manager) Cody Efaw and the whole group. What he’s given us to work with could be ‘once-in-a-lifetime’. This might be my last shot with this kind of opportunity.
“So I want to do right by him and all the boys and girls—and I’m going to say the same thing next year. I want to take advantage of the opportunities, because I do know how good it is. I’ve come to Martinsville with a 14th-place truck—practiced 14th, qualified 14th, finished 14th—and I got fired because I ran 14th. So I know how good this opportunity is.”
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" 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, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
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