NASCAR CUP SERIES
DARLINGTON RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
AUGUST 31, 2024
Ross Chastain, driver of the No. 1 Busch Retro Camaro ZL1 and No. 92 Protect Your Melon Camaro SS, met with the media in advance of racing double duty in the NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series at Darlington Raceway.
Media Availability Quotes:
Obviously a big weekend for your team. Tell us a little bit about how you guys prepared for this weekend, and what your thoughts are heading into tomorrow’s race.
“Just prepared for the Southern 500. I can’t tell you all my secrets. But yeah, it’s been a fairly normal week. We stuck to our same processes that we normally do with the DiL simulator; talking through some options there of different setups and different things we’ve run in the past. We did fit in some extra time. Been doing some work with SVG and just leaning on each other to learn and lay some groundwork for how we each interact and things. We just have such a great tool with GM and their simulators there in Concord that we try to just lean into that thing and use it as a tool. It doesn’t tell us all the answers, but it’ll give us a lot of questions to ponder.
Pretty normal. Yeah, just talking through it. A few bike rides, a few runs. And then ate some good food yesterday to catch up and recover from the week. We’re ready to rip this morning.”
When you’re in the position that you are coming into this race, how much time do you spend reflecting on the ‘woulda, shoulda, couldas’ throughout the year? The races that you had good runs, you were in contention and it didn’t materialize..
“I don’t think those races cross my mind. The races that did have been the past Darlington races. As I look through and look through the weekends since 2021, when I got with Phil Surgen and the Gen-7 car; looking through those four years now, three-and-a-half years of races, and all of the nuances of each weekend and what I was saying and all that.. that’s the ‘shoulda, woulda, couldas’ of the past Southern 500’s and the past spring races. As I daydream a little bit throughout the weekend, it was those races that were popping up in my head.”
So there’s no race where you look back and go ‘I wish I had that one back’?
“Well there’s definitely races.. yes, there’s a long list. Nashville is obviously at the top of that list. I felt like we could win there. Texas, I was going to run second and would be really happy coming out of there. Those two stand out the most. Pocono, I just crashed. Not at the end of the race and not up front.. we were not up front at all, but that’s one where I just flat spun out. Trying to go too fast for the amount of grip I had and broke traction. So yes, there is a list. But when I was thinking this week, when I would kind of daydream and lose focus, it was Darlington races that were playing in my mind.”
Are you surprised to be in this position with the way you ran last year and the way you ended last year?
“Yeah, I am. Yeah, yeah it is. This stuff is so hard. I knew that.. I knew that whenever I ran my first truck race in 2011 and as I stepped up through the ranks and was in Cup cars here at Darlington, ones that we were just there to run the laps and go single-digit number of laps down.. nine or less was the goal. I knew how challenging it was. I also had this dream that it would be a whole lot easier when I had all the funding, the tires, the pit crew, everything. And it has.. definitely. I don’t expect to go laps down anymore. It still happens every now and then, but yeah – I’d say right now, it’s real that we’re in this position.
So yeah, I’d say surprised. If you would have had me fill out a bingo card at the start of the season, I wouldn’t have dabbed this block, for sure.”
When you are daydreaming, is there a scenario where you can get in on points or is this a ‘must win’ situation?
“I just know the best way that we can ensure it is to win. We’ve had opportunities to win the Southern 500. We’ve had opportunities to win a couple of races in the spring and fall here in a different series. That’s my goal. The math says we can do it either way, but my preparation and my mentality – and it’s been this way in Cup since the very first spring race that I came here in 2021. I left here that weekend and thought we can win a Cup race at Darlington one day and that thought hasn’t left my mind since.”
Are you running the Xfinity race to have more laps here? Are you doing it as a nice distraction to all the pressure? Are you doing it because you are committed to it and if the situation was different, maybe you wouldn’t?
“I love Darlington, so I want to race all of the races that I can here. I would still run tripleheaders if I thought it was going to be beneficial. I don’t think tripleheaders are the best thing for me in today’s climate of everything. But no, there’s never been a thought about backing out or asking Mario to let me out of the car. I see the benefit. I mean, yes – it’s a H-pattern shifter versus a sequential. It’s independent rear suspension. Truck arms versus not. So there’s a lot of differences, but ripping some laps for 20 minutes this morning; I can’t think of anything better to help me be faster Sunday night than getting laps on track here. It’s only my third Xfinity race of the year, so it’s not like I’ve loaded up on them. I have hit that five-race limit rule, which is a badge of honor too. And I don’t even think I’m going to hit five races this year.. I think I’m only going to do four.”
Do you feel at all that you don’t have the speed that you’ve had against the competition in the past? I’m looking at your laps led, I’m looking at your stage wins, and it just doesn’t seem to be where you’ve been the last two seasons..
“Yeah, I think the stages is the big, easy thing to point at. You look at finishing position and I don’t think it’s as bad as it would seem right now. But the stage points are way down. So yeah, we’ve just not been up there as consistently. There’s been times where we’ve been up there, but just haven’t been able to put together enough points. They give out the same amount of points for every race, except the Coca-Cola 600. Do I think that I’ve had the consistent speed? No, but do I think at Darlington that we’ll have the speed? I do. When I pull on track, I want to go and be as fast as I can in our practice session. And that hasn’t always been the case. Some of our goals in the past – we’ve been fine with not being very fast in practice here, but this weekend is about speed and calibrating up to what the lap times are going to be today. So, I think that here, it’s one of our measuring tools of where we’re at as a team, and if we can come here to Darlington and show speed and be competitive, then we’re not doing everything so wrong, as it would seem because we’re in this situation. As there’s been with this generation car, there’s been a lot of different winners and we needed to be one of those.”
We’re expecting an announcement about Christian Eckes taking the next step in his progression. A guy like you that’s raced trucks a lot, what have you seen from him, as far as his growth over the last couple of years?
“Yeah, I’ve seen him step through a few different teams and then land with Bill McAnally; take a team that’s never won in the Truck Series, win and be a consistent lap leader and race winner. I think him, Charles and Bill have built something special there. I’m biased because I’m over at Niece Motorsports, so I see them as a key partner Chevy truck team and as a teammate. Phil Gould and Charles work together, and they’re more similar than they are different. Yeah, I’ve seen what they’ve done. I’ve seen him pass me a lot in truck races. I don’t know what his announcement is or what he’s doing, but the next step.. I don’t know, got a good thing there. That No. 19 truck has obviously been so competitive and so fast.”
Aside from the consistent speed that you mentioned you don’t have.. when you look at the points, you were 93 points above the cutline leaving New Hampshire. So aside from the speed, what has this team fought that you guys just aren’t where you were last year?
“I didn’t crash on my own at Pocono in years past, so that one stands out, for sure. You could go down the list and you could dissect it over a four hour media availability. But ultimately, it just comes back to how fast you can go and can you finish those benchmark moments of Stage One, Two and the end of the race and collect the points. Don’t really have anything to point out, for sure. But it just adds up to points.. I don’t really know how else to answer that.”
Where is it on this race track that you can be aggressive when you’re trying to dance with the ‘Lady in Black’, has that changed? And has the day-to-night handling of the car made a real big difference on this track?
“The day-to-night definitely makes a difference. But no, I’ve only been on this track since its current paving configuration and asphalt that’s on it now. So as I’ve stepped through Xfinity races, Truck and Cup races, I’ve definitely pulled out of here more disappointed than I’ve ever been excited. But I’ve always pulled in here excited just to be here. The drive down is awesome. We’ve just had so many opportunities to pull out of here winners and we haven’t accomplished it, except the one time, which was this year. It was just so cool, and it really made it more special because of all the failures. I’ve failed here so many times with cars and trucks capable of winning. We were coming back from Covid and having the opportunity to win the second Xfinity race here that year.. just moments like that where it was right there in front of us. We did so many things right, but ultimately didn’t win. Putting together 500 miles from daylight to dark, and how these Cup cars drive off turn two; you’re either really fast and going forward, or you’re wondering if you’re going to crash every lap. When I step out of the car and watch it back, it’s awesome to watch. But in the moment, it gets my heartrate up pretty high.”
The aggressiveness you’re going to have to have at this track, matched with just hanging onto the car, how aggressive are you going to have to be?
“I don’t know.. nothing preconceived. Preparation for that, it’s more lap-by-lap. Trying to keep an understanding of what’s going on in the race; what stage of the race we’re at, what point and what lap. And yeah, how my car is. If I’m tight or if I’m loose. If I’ve been bottoming out off the bump in turn two, or if I’m really tight for three laps. It all leads kind of a natural thing for me as a driver to naturally drive and kind of adjust to how aggressive I can be. It could be that I’m limited by how hard I’m hitting the ground or something like that.”
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