Ross Chastain Scores 6th Straight Top 10 at Dover

By: Matt Courson, Staff Writer

DOVER, Del. — Ross Chastain’s streak of finishing inside the top 10 in the Gander Outdoors Truck Series in 2019 will continue for at least one more week.

Chastain, who is driving the No. 45 truck for Niece Motorsports, finished 10th Friday in the Jegs 200 at Dover International Speedway, marking his sixth straight top-10 finish in just as many races.

Competing in every NASCAR top-three tier series event this season, Chastain was outside of the top 10 for a majority of Friday’s event before he squeaked inside in the waning laps, finishing 10th.

“We just didn’t handle good all weekend, we were just missing a lot,” Chastain said. “This was our worst race I’d say by far. This is our Martinsville truck (led 53 laps en route to a fourth-place finish), we felt like we had a good package to come here, but we missed a lot.”

Despite the difficulties, it was not the hardest in which Chastain fought for a 10th-place finish.

“Back in my Bobby Dotter days, we fought for 10th every week,” he said. “But yeah, that one was tough. I drive hard every lap, every race. But my arms are tired right now.

“I was wishing we had a different steering box in the truck, I really did struggle just being consistent with the handling issues we were having, and with our steering box, everything was working against us it felt like.

“We got done with that first stage and I was like ‘How am I gonna keep on going?’ Just head down, take a breather under caution, and adrenaline keeps back up coming to the green. I don’t think about it until the cautions come out and I’m like ‘Man, my arms really hurt’. We’ll go to Kansas and try to run like we have been on the mile-and-a-halves.”

Chastain has become increasingly popular in Delaware when the Delaware Office of Highway Safety and Florida Watermelon Association come together to sponsor the Floridian.

“It’s crazy what this has turned into up here in Delaware,” he said. “So the Office of Highway Safety sponsors the Xfinity car with Johnny Davis every year and we do a really big campaign reminding people to buckle up and protect their melon. And the Florida Watermelon Association, that’s where their watermelons are coming from, is Florida. And that’s where our farm is harvesting so it just works great.

“Last year Florida was on the Cup car and this year it went on the Truck. It just ties in really well with all the watermelon stuff. We’ve got a big display in the fanzone and signs everywhere. Watermelons take over Dover.”