After getting justifiably dumped by Ross Chastain in an Xfinity Series race in 2018 via retaliation, Kevin Harvick said the following.
“So, you’ve got a really inexperienced guy in a really fast car and made a really bad move…That’s probably the reason that he’ll never get to drive many of them again.”
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That quote has proceeded to age as well as milk left out on the counter. On Tuesday around noon, NASCAR’s resident melon farmer had his second full-time Cup Series deal revealed. A multi-year deal for the new Trackhouse Racing Team, that will see him teaming up with Daniel Suarez. For his car number, he will go from driving the No. 42 car to now moving to the No. 1 machine. Further details on this move are below.
The Long Road
Trackhouse co-owner Justin Marks in the team’s press release brought up that this was (to his knowledge) Chastian’s first multi-year deal. That may not sound like a big deal, but for a driver that has made it to the pinnacle of stock car racing how Chastain has, it absolutely is. Chastain made his first national series start back in 2011, that year’s Trucks Series race at the then Indianapolis Raceway Park. It was not until 2013 where he would get his first big break in the series. Brad Keselowski brought him in on a part-time deal to his trucks team bearing his namesake. Chastain scored a trio of top-three finishes in 14 total starts. Unfortunately, a return to Keselowski Racing in 2014 was not in the cards.
Chastain’s luck would turn around in 2015 when he hopped on with JD Motorsports of the Xfinity Series. A team that he would stick around with for the next three consecutive years on a full-time basis. Between 2015-2018, he finished top 15 or better in points three times. Then a major break was on the horizon. Chip Ganassi Racing gave Chastain a three-race deal at the end of that year’s regular season. After Harvick ruined his first race at Darlington, he went on to win his next start at Las Vegas, then finished second at Richmond.
Continued
A deal was set in stone for Chastain to run more Xfinity races in 2019 for Ganassi, but it ended up falling through. His potential sponsor, DC Solar being caught by the FBI due to Ponzi scheme allegations and filed for bankruptcy shortly after. This even led to the Xfinity program of Chip Ganassi racing to shut down entirely. While Chastain did have a nearly full-year Cup Series deal for 2019, it was with Premium Motorsports. He only had two finishes inside the top 20 the whole year on the Cup end of things. But 2019 was not all doom and gloom for Chastain however. He won the July Xfinity Series race at Daytona with Kaulig Racing, then smashed a watermelon on the start-finish line.
Last year, Chastain was tabbed by Roush Fenway Racing as Ryan Newman‘s substitute after his horrifying Daytona 500 accident. His results were not world-breaking, but for an emergency fill-in, he did well for himself. 2021 would present a full-circle opportunity for Chastain. As he received a Cup ride with Gannasi for the year in the 42 car. Currently, he sits just on the outside of the Cup Series Playoff picture with just a handful of races left in the regular season. But has been solid for the Ganassi squad, earning six top 10’s in 22 races. Chastain does not sit on the top rung in the NASCAR pecking order per se, but few can share the journey he has to get to this point. A well-deserved contract for America’s favorite melon farmer.
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