By Lewis Franck, Staff Writer
An Academy Award-winning finish on track wasn’t good enough for Ross Chastain to advance to the Round of 8 in the NASCAR Playoffs. If NASCAR handed out Oscars instead of trophies, Ross Chastain would get an award for best driver in a supporting role in the Cup Championship.
The Floridian, perhaps best known for his “hail melon” wall riding at Martinsville in 2022, which launched him into NASCAR’s Final Four that year, was desperate to finish far enough ahead of Joey Logano on Sunday to advance once again. Chastain bounced back from two unforced pit road errors to put himself in place to get the spot he needed, then, “I just completely unraveled our day. We definitely had the speed on the last lap, yeah, and missed Turn 7, and I slid the rear tires and let the 11 (Denny Hamlin) by.”
Attempting to pass Hamlin, he spun his car and took Hamlin out in the process. Still unwilling to give up, he slammed the shifter of his #1 Chevrolet Camaro into reverse, stood on the gas and raced backwards across the finish line in 29th at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL. Hamlin did the same.
Asked after the race if he was upset at Chastain for spinning him a few feet from the checkered flag, Hamlin commented, “No, I don’t fault Ross at all. I just wish I knew so I could have been either prepared or made a different decision.”
It’s fair to say most garage-insiders have never seen that kind of finish before. While devastating for Chastain, it was likely the most entertaining moment of the event. Coming into this past weekend, Tyler Reddick was in a must-win situation to advance.
And things were looking good on Saturday as the 23XI driver put his No. 45 Toyota Camry on the pole. His problem was (as was all the drivers) Shane van Gisbergen dominated the race.
“I don’t know if anything necessarily went wrong today for how the race was playing out,” said Reddick. “We wanted to prioritize setting up to win the race”.
He and his crew chief, Billy Scott, had a strategy to anticipate a late-race caution, which did not play out. Reddick finished 10th.
Bubba Wallace, Reddick’s teammate, faced a similar situation – win, or he was out. He had to get a victory at the ROVAL after a possible win was stymied as the result of an incident at Kansas Speedway with his team’s co-owner, Hamlin.
At a Saturday press conference, Wallace said the air was clear as far as the team went. But he was no factor in Charlotte finishing 15th. He put the fault on himself for a lack of handling tire degradation on road courses.
“Him (Hamlin) and I both suck on road courses and we can’t save tires on road courses,” Wallace said. “It is just frustrating. It is back to how I was a couple of years ago. Frustrated at myself, just knowing what was on the line and I didn’t produce but it wasn’t for a lack of effort”.
Team Penske driver, Austin Cindric, was going to be the longest shot. After his Ford Mustang was struck by a spinning car driven by Carson Hocevar during Stage 2, that was the end of his championship hopes. His car was irreparable and he was credited with 36th.
“Just a shame that we got hit so perfectly, that KO’d all of my rear suspension,” Cindric said after the race. “You don’t want three races to define your season. It’s amazing how much everything ebbs and flows throughout the year. You feel like, for a month, you can’t do anything wrong and for the three weeks that matter the most, you feel like you can’t do anything right. It’s just how the cookie crumbles and you gotta be on it, and we’ll learn.”