Ross Chastain
Hot News NASCAR Cup Series

NASCAR: Chastain wins Hollywood Casino 400 Kansas Cup race

Posted by AR1 staff

Ross Chastain turned in a breakthrough performance in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Playoff race, denying postseason contender William Byron the win at Kansas Speedway and notching his first win of the season.

Chastain’s No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet led 52 of the 267 laps in the Hollywood Casino 400, holding a 0.388-second winning margin at the end of the first race in the postseason’s Round of 12. Chastain’s first win at the 1.5-mile Kansas City track marked the fifth of his Cup Series career — his first since the 2023 season finale at Phoenix Raceway, 30 races ago.

Having failed to qualify for the postseason this year, Chastain reveled in his first victory of the season, his first at Kansas and the fifth of his career.

“For us on this 1 team, it’s what Cup racing is all about,” said Chastain, who led 52 laps. “It’s what (team co-owner) Justin Marks bought into Trackhouse with Pitbull, bought into NASCAR with Trackhouse to do stuff like this – to disrupt.

“Look, there’s been times this year where we couldn’t have disrupted the minnow pond outside of Darlington, let alone a Cup race. It’s hard. It’s really tough. To come and do this, there are times where I didn’t think after practicing and qualifying we had what it took. I thought we have been way stronger here in the past. It didn’t feel great all day, but our Kubota Chevy, it was better as the rubber went down, and the adjustments were great.”

Byron led 24 laps and finished second in the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Martin Truex Jr. placed third, with Ryan Blaney fourth and Ty Gibbs completing the top five.

“Yeah, just clean air,” Byron said ruefully. “I feel like he got the restart he needed to, and I was in the second row just trying to clear those guys. Once I got clear of them, my balance was OK. Just a little bit tight, but just kind of inching up on him. I needed probably, you know, for it to be a longer run being in second.

“Damn it, I wanted that one really bad. It just sucks, man. You’re so close, and you know going to Talladega you know what that is. So just sucks, but proud of the effort.”

Christopher Bell started his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota from the pole position and led a race-high 121 laps. He drove on after a pair of wall scrapes — one near the end of each of the first two stages — which kept him from collecting a bigger stage-point bonus, then salvaged a seventh-place finish.

Ross Chastain and his Trackhouse team celebrate their first win of the season

Byron heads to next Sunday’s race at Talladega Superspeedway as the series leader, with a six-point edge over Bell and Blaney and a 34-point margin over ninth-place Tyler Reddick, the first driver below the cut line for the next round.

Hamlin and Bowman are fifth and sixth in the standings, 11 and eight points above the elimination line, respectively.

Kyle Larson entered as the series’ points leader, but his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet scrubbed the outside retaining wall in the 19th lap after an exploding Goodyear tire deflated. Larson continued after multiple pit stops for repairs, eventually regaining a lost lap and finishing 26th.

During the subsequent 56-lap green-flag run to the end of Stage 1, Larson complained of a vibration in his No. 5 Chevrolet, fell one lap down and finished the stage in 35th place.

Larson got his lap back as the beneficiary car under caution for Daniel Hemric’s spin on Lap 143 and mitigated some of the damage to his points position with a 26th-place finish. Larson leaves Kansas fourth in the standings, 18 points above the current elimination line for the Round of 8.

Reddick, Daniel Suárez, Chase Briscoe and Austin Cindric weren’t as fortunate.

Reddick, the defending race winner, could only manage a 25th-place result and leaves Kansas four points below the elimination line. Suárez finished 14th and trials Elliott and Joey Logano (tied for eighth) by 14 points.

Briscoe fought an ill-handling car and finished 24th, falling 25 points down to eighth place. Cindric sustained damage during a spin on the backstretch on Lap 157, finished four laps down in 34th and trails Logano and Elliott by 29 points.

Seeking his first victory of the season – with a record 19-year streak of winning at least one race per season on the line – Kyle Busch held the lead on Lap 226, with Chastain in pursuit. But as Busch attempted to put Briscoe a lap down though a narrow gap at the top of the track, his car broke loose and spun off Turn 2, causing the ninth caution.

“I’m sure he was racing to stay on the lead lap with whoever was in front of him there,” said Busch, who finished 19th. “Granted, they have a race to run, but back in the old days when you were under 30 (laps) to go or whatever it was, lapped traffic would kind of lay over and give you a lane and let the leaders race.

“I just wasn’t getting that, so I tried to force my hand into getting that and get to his outside, and for whatever reason, it just gave all the air in all the wrong places, and I spun out.”

The race featured 30 lead changes among 15 drivers, the latter a track record. Bell led a race-high 122 laps. Hendrick teammates Byron and Bowman won stages 1 and 2, respectively.

The Cup Series will continue the Round of 12 at Talladega Superspeedway next Sunday.

ROSS CHASTAIN, NO. 1 KUBOTA CAMARO ZL1

Finished: 1st

“This is incredible! To drive into victory lane in the Cup Series, it’s just so challenging. It’s so tough. That process I talked about last year in Nashville, we all stayed on it. We haven’t gone anywhere. We keep showing up. It’s not easy when you’re failing or struggling at something, and you just can’t get to where you want to get to.

Our No. 1 Kubota Chevy today, we had what we needed to have, when we needed it. After practice and qualifying, I didn’t think we had the best car, but we kept working on it. I have to be honest; it was some of the most motivating on-radio stuff that Phil Surgen has ever had. We manifested the front-two rows when we weren’t up there, and then we manifested the front row and we took the lead on it. For everything that this means for Worldwide Express and Busch Light – a brand like that, to buy into me, it’s absolutely incredible.”

Q: The seventh generation Washington melon farmer gets to celebrated here in the Midwest in the only way that he loves to celebrate, with a little watermelon smash for the Kansas race fans after the sprint by the hauler driver all the way from the garage area to the front stretch here at Kansas Speedway. Ross Chastain, the winner here in Kansas.

Didn’t make the playoffs, but they showed up in the playoffs. Last year they won the championship race at Phoenix. Not part of the playoffs, but they kick off the round of 12 for the playoff drivers as a non-playoff participant, but get it to victory lane. What is it about this race team and the propensity to be able to win these big playoff races, Ross?

ROSS CHASTAIN: What do you mean? What’s the big deal? We won.

No, it’s a huge deal, Marty. I am going to take down my consumption just a little bit. For us on this 1 team, it’s what cup racing is all about. It’s what Justin Marks bought into Trackhouse with Pitbull, bought into NASCAR with Trackhouse to do stuff like this, to disrupt.

Look, there’s been times this year where we couldn’t have disrupted the minnow pond outside of Darlington, let alone a cup race. It’s hard. It’s really tough.

To come and do this, there are times where I didn’t think after practicing qualifying we had what it took. I thought we have been way stronger here in the past. It didn’t feel great all day, but our Kubota Chevy, it was better as the rubber went down, and the adjustments were great.

I do have to say I have quite the bill piling up at Kubota, so this is going to definitely help to going to paying that off. I have some M-6s heading down to the farm. I’ve also been on Jim Campbell and everybody at GM for wanting one of the Silverado EVs, so I think I get front of the line now on that.

I remember that process I talked about at Nashville last year. We haven’t left. We haven’t went away. Nobody has slowed us down other than ourselves, and today we were the fastest car.

Q: William Byron comes home in the runner-up position. It looks like you were chasing down Ross Chastain. Just needed a little bit more. What would have made the difference there at the end?

WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, just clean air. I feel like he got the restart he needed to, and I was in the second row just trying to clear those guys. Once I got clear of them, my balance was okay. Just a little bit tight, but just kind of inching up on him. I needed probably, you know, for it to be a longer run being in second.

Damn it, I wanted that one really bad. It just sucks, man. You’re so close, and you know going to Talladega you know what that is. So just sucks, but proud of the effort.

Brought an awesome car. Proud of all my guys. They’ve been working their tails off. We’ve gotten a lot of BS over the summer from the outside and just I know how good this team is, and I know what we’re capable of. So this is a great day to build on.

Thanks to Valvoline. Thanks to all our partners, Raptor, Axalta, Liberty. Looking forward to Talladega. We’re usually good there, and we’ll just see how that goes.

Q: You talk about what this team can do. You were the highest points earner today, won a stage, finished runner-up. Was this a statement to the field?

WILLIAM BYRON: It’s just what we can do. We know how important these tracks are, and we’re excited to keep building and keep putting weeks together like this. We got off a little bit at times during the race, but we were able to get it back. Just proud of that.

We have work to do, but proud of the effort today. It was really good.

Race Results

# DENOTES ROOKIE
(i) NOT ELIGIBLE FOR POINTS
(*) REQUIRED TO QUALIFY ON TIME