By Caleb Whisler, Staff Writer
Ross Chastain was able to play the Drive for the Cure 200 in a conservative manner to finish 12th at the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course.
At the beginning of the race, the No. 4 team of JD Motorsports decided it would be better to forfeit their 16th starting position to start at the rear of the field. Chastain called the move “unorthodox”
“It’s unorthodox for sure. People call me crazy. They call all of us on the 4 car crazy. We got here by doing our own deal and doing it differently from everybody else. We need to play it safe. We needed to have a car there at the end. In the end, we were up there in the middle of the chaos, but at that point, you have to go,” Chastain stated post-race.
By race end, Chastain felt like that was the best decision the team could have made. According to Chastain, that move allowed for them to have a shot at the end of the race to be up towards the front.
“I wouldn’t change anything. I still had a shot. We did not crash. I can run this car next year. It’s a job well-done. We minimized the damage by doing what we needed to do,” he said.
While many were concerned about tearing up their equipment, Chastain was able to save what he had—minus the rear tires—to finish where he did.
“For our situation, I felt like I had the best brakes there at the end. I had my gearbox and transmission. My drive line was as well taken care of as it could be,” he said
“It’s a worry for us. We worry about stuff breaking. Everybody does, but I worry a lot. I was able to ease around there those first 30 laps. I ended up 12th. I had a shot at seventh, but I burned the rear tires off. It is what it is.”
Going into next weekend at Dover, Chastain finds himself nine points above the cutoff line to advance into the second round of the Playoffs. The goal for the No. 4 team is to have one of their best runs of the season.
“We go out there and run as good as we can. There is no laying back there. There is going to be crashed there too, but for Dover, we will have to go and run as fast as we can and out race these guys. That is one thing our No. 4 guys can do. Our race craft has really come a long way. We can just minimize our mistakes and be okay.”