Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain had the best Daytona 500 of his career on Monday in the post-pinned 2024 season opener. He was impressive the whole day with aggressive yet controlled racing and survived multiple wrecks to place himself for the contention of race win on the final restart. But he unfortunately got wrecked on the penultimate lap.
The No:1 Trackhouse Chevy found itself in a three-wide situation after he grew impatient and tried to get to the lead through a small gap that opened. But this resulted in Alex Bowman giving him a nudge and moving him to 2022 Daytona 500 winner Austin Cindric, who was getting aggressively pushed by Cory LeJoie, and the duo spun and got, causing the final caution, making NASCAR end the race under yellow.
While talking about his race, after conversing with Cindric about their crash, Chastain admitted that he was too aggressive with his left turn ahead of the incident. He admitted that he would’ve been in the victory lane if he had shown a bit of patience, as there was one more lap left for him to fight for the win.
I was just too aggressive with my turn left. I should have just waited a little bit longer, obviously. I'm here standing here talking (to reporters) instead of out there (in Victory Lane). Chastain said, as reported by The Plam Beach Post.
Ross Chastain is happy for William Byron
Chastain’s crash gave Willaim Byron a win the youngster deserves and also an early redemption following the championship loss in 2023. Despite being involved in it, Ross Chastain, Byron, and Bowman were the only drivers to survive the big one. But unlike the HMS drivers, the Trackhouse stars’ luck ran out quickly.
Chastain, while talking about the No:24 Chevy team’s win highlighted how good Chevy’s were on the day. Despite Ford teams having the fastest cars, the Chevy sides came out in front in all pit cycles and had a superior strategy on the day.
I'm happy for William, and Chevy, and General Motors to win. It was really awesome for us to control some of those green-flag pit cycles and really kick their butts. … To have all those Chevys there at the end made me feel good. Chastain said.
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