Ross Chastain isn’t a name you would often see further down the championship ranking. He finished 2nd in 2022, 9th in 2023, 19th in 2024, and 10th in 2025. 

Chastain’s name is one that comes with a sense of competition, but he has been far off his best this season due to multiple reasons. But with back-to-back top 10 finishes at Pocono and San Diego, he seems to be coming to his best form. 

Although he finished 14th in Sonoma, it was on the back of qualifying higher than his road course maestro teammate Shane Van Gisbergen. SVG qualified 6th behind Chastain in 5th. 

Post-qualifying in Sonoma, Chastain spoke to the media and was asked if he felt that his season was finally starting to come good. Frontstretch uploaded the video on X with Chastain talking about his resurgence. 

Chastain said, “The last calendar year, probably that’s good because we’ve not been able to put together weekends like that. So through all the chaos, through all the craziness of what could have been the last few weeks earlier in this year, we would have definitely been in those crashes, and we were in all this stuff now quietly. It does feel good.”

Chastian pointed to the multiple issues he was faced with earlier in the season, like mechanical failures, pit road penalties and a violation, and two DNFs to add to his misery. But he is feeling better with Trackhouse finding the pace they have found recently. 

The No. 1 Trackhouse Chevrolet driver is currently 22nd in the championship and will need to harness his full potential and the car’s full potential to make the Chase. 

Chastain believes his effort not lacking despite abysmal season

Ross Chastain is trying to find every bit of performance he can from his Trackhouse Chevrolet, but despite where he is in the standings, Chastain said that he has been giving the same effort through the season despite what the results show. 

At the same press interaction, Chastain was asked if he needed to put more effort, knowing that he needs to pick up points going into the Chase. He said, “Yeah, aware, but I can't try any harder. When we were crashing and popping brake rotors and not finishing races, I was putting in the same work. Yes, the results came, the points came with the results. Beyond that, how we get the most points, I control lap time, and lap time includes fenders on the car.”

While cryptic, Chastain's message was clear: he’s doing everything in his power to get the best results possible, but often the results aren’t just dependent on him but also set up amongst other things. 

Chastain is 45 points off Austin Cindric in 16th, but he will need to pick up way more points and hopefully more top 10 finishes while hoping that those between him and 16th don’t show as much consistency. 

Do you think Ross Chastain can make the Chase? Share your thoughts. 

You can read more on the Daytona Racing Digest!

Written by

Debrup Chaudhuri

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason