Ross Chastain fondly remembers winning the NASCAR Truck Series race at Pocono Raceway in 2019.
The 32-year-old driver from Florida, who comes from a family of watermelon farmers, led 54 of 60 laps for a dominant victory. After the checkered flag fell, he did his trademark celebration.
“Smashing a watermelon on the frontstretch, a (watermelon) beach ball in the grandstands, interacting with the fans and smashing (another watermelon) in that iconic Victory Lane and getting that eagle trophy,” Chastain said. “Just an incredible memory we have. I swept the watermelon out of Victory Lane to help the track crew clean up. We had a good day and we want to recreate that in the Cup Series.”
Chastain will try to do that Sunday when he comes to the 2.5-mile triangular track in Long Pond for The Great American Getaway 400 presented by VISITPA.COM. It is part of a NASCAR tripleheader weekend that includes the Craftsman Truck Series on Friday and the Xfinity Series on Saturday.
He spoke last week at Sunset Hill Shooting Range in Henryville as part of media day for this weekend’s race.
While Chastain was able to win in the Truck Series at Pocono — and record three top-five and five top-10 finishes in six starts — he hasn’t been able to translate that success over to the other series.
In five Xfinity starts at Pocono from 2016-20, he has only one top-10 finish: a second in 2020. In nine Cup starts, his best finish is 13th in 2023; no other finish is better than 24th in the other eight races.
“Just got to execute better,” Chastain said. “We’ve had speed, we’ve led laps, we’ve led on late restarts and not been able to finish the races. So definitely want to perform and close that last bit. It’s the last 10 percent of the race that I’ve struggled in. So if we show up with speed like I expect we will, we’ll have a shot.”
With its three different corners, Chastain said racing at Pocono is a challenge.
“It’s one of the final family-owned tracks we have left in our sport,” Chastain said. “The Mattioli family, when they designed it, they purposely made it three different turns. They wanted it that way. A long frontstretch that we have a lot of time to think about Turn 1 and I usually overdrive there. Then I get to Turn 2 and I tip-toe through there because it’s very treacherous. Then Turn 3 is a long, flat corner that really tests your patience.”
At times this season, Chastain has had his patience tested. Through 16 races, he has three top-five and eight top-10 finishes in the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet and ranks eighth in the standings with 443 points.
His season did receive a boost four weeks ago when he won the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, NASCAR’s longest race and one of its crown jewel events. He did it after crashing his primary car in practice Saturday and being forced to start the race 40th in a backup car. He passed William Byron for the lead with six laps to go and went on to become the first driver since Richard Petty in 1971 at Richmond to win from the last starting position.
“We started with some sparks of good and then we kind of went through a little lull,” Chastain said. “I talked about it publicly. We wanted more, we wanted to be faster and we’ve accomplished that. We’re showing up better, we’re competing on a more regular basis. So we’re good, we’re not quite great. We were great at Charlotte and when we bottle that up and we execute and get the car in a great spot, we’re able to compete.
“We’re close now. If we stay in that top 10, eventually those will be top fives and then we’ll be competing for wins more regularly.”
The victory at Charlotte likely secures one of the 16 spots for the playoffs over the final 10 races. But Chastain said that is not going to change his approach for the remaining regular-season races.
“Nothing different for me,” he said. “We came out of Charlotte, we celebrated winning the Coca-Cola 600 a lot and we’ll continue to. That’s a race we will celebrate being champions of the rest of our lives. An incredible accomplishment for Trackhouse.
“But we continue to move on. There’s a new race every seven days, that’s what’s so great about our sport. For 38 weekends we have chances to win and we want to win a lot more than one time. So no laying down, no trying things. We’re just going to keep trying to put ourselves in position to win every week.”
Practice and qualifying for The Great American Getaway 400 is scheduled for Saturday. The 160-lap race is set to get the green flag Sunday at 2 p.m. and will be televised on Amazon Prime.
NASCAR AT POCONO SCHEDULE
Friday: Craftsman Truck Series practice, 12:35-1:30 p.m.; qualifying, 1:40-2:30 p.m.; Miller Tech Battery 200, 5 p.m.
Saturday: Xfinity Series practice, 10-10:55 a.m.; Xfinity qualifying, 11:05 a.m.-noon; Cup Series practice, 12:35-1:35 p.m.; Cup qualifying, 1:45-2:30 p.m.; Xfinity Explore the Pocono Mountains 250, 3:30 p.m.
Sunday: Cup Series, The Great American Getaway 400 presented by VISITPA.COM, 2 p.m.
Source: Berkshire mont
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