By Caleb Whisler, Staff Writer
At Martinsville Speedway, Ross Chastain was able to lead laps and win a stage in the TruNorth Global 250 to ultimately finish in the fourth position.
In pole qualifying Saturday morning, Chastain qualified in the 10th position, his first top-10 starting position of the 2019 season. By the end of the first stage, Chastain worked his way to the fifth position.
In the second stage, Chastain was able to battle with race winner Kyle Busch at the front of the field until he ultimately was able to garner the race lead on Lap 131. While racing with Busch, Chastain noticed where he and Niece Motorsports need to improve.
“It was awesome, Chastain said of racing with Busch. “We have some work to do to get there. He took me to school there with the stage finish. I imagine he let us go and burn our stuff up a little bit. I burned my front tires up. That was big deal to get the stage win and get some track position and clean air. It’s a dream come true to be out here let alone a chance to go win.”
After Martinsville, Chastain became the only driver to have finished in the top-10 in all four races of 2019. For Chastain, he knew that Niece Motorsports would showcase speed, but he expected it to happen later in the season
“Not this quick,” he said about the performance of Niece. “I thought we would get there. We definitely had some work to do after last season. With Phil Gould coming in and the work Cody Efaw has done, the program has definitely been taken to the next level. For the last month, I’ve been more excited with the truck we are bringing there.”
Despite having a solid start in the 2019 Truck season, Chastain already declared points in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.