NASCAR CUP SERIES
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
DAYTONA 500 MEDIA DAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTES
FEBRUARY 11, 2026
Ross Chastain, driver of the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet – 2026 DAYTONA 500 Media Day Quotes:
What does 2026 look like for you guys?
“To be determined. It’s definitely an upgrade package. It’s very intentional about that with Chevy. But pushing at the super speedways, we’ll learn tomorrow night. The rest of the tracks are more about the balance of the car, if the downforce changes front to back and how it goes over the car, how the air goes over. They’ve done all their testing, but until the drivers get on track and give some feedback… I’m sure there’ll be things we’ll have to offset to try to help the balance.”
How close have you gotten with your new crew chief? And it’s kind of cool that it’s two Floridians, you know, working together. That doesn’t happen very often in the sport. How do you bond?
“I’ve known Brandon McSwain for more than a decade. We met in 2014 at Shigeaki Hattori’s team. It was his first job out of college. He’s worked for Bruce Cook as an engineer, and we hit it off. We’ve stayed friends. We’ve lived about a mile from each other for the last five years probably, and I was at his wedding when he married his better half, Jackie and they’ve raised two awesome kids now. So definitely something that we didn’t have to go to dinner to learn each other’s names. I know his family. His wife’s uncle is actually a watermelon seed salesman. So it’s pretty crazy that we’ve been connected more than in more than one way. Now we’re finally getting to work together again after meeting in a race shop a long time ago.”
Do you think that helps having that familiarity when you’re going to be making calls with 20 laps to go in the Daytona 500?
“That’s why he was my guy. I tossed his name in the hat at Trackhouse. They were interviewing several great candidates. All would have been great crew chiefs. Some are currently, and some will be one day. My vote was Brandon. I had the relationship with him and feel like I understand his voice. I’m a people person, and I feel like I understand what he’s saying long before I have to kind of think about it.”
How do you feel about your chances at the front row tonight?
I don’t know. It’s more of maybe a question for McSwain. I don’t think that Trackhouse has shown in the past that we’re front-row capable. Chevy has, but not us. The lap in practice wasn’t indicative of single-car speed. Everybody had dirty laps. I was out there by myself, then the 2 car drafted up behind me and then my old amigo Daniel (Suarez) blended in front of me, and we got a big tow. So that wasn’t by ourselves. Nobody was really by themselves.”
At what point in the line do you start to feel maybe a sense of urgency to win this race, get that done before you start becoming one of the guys where you’re this statistic of how many attempts?
“I don’t have that feeling. I don’t know if it’ll ever show up in my mind. I’m happy to be here, happy to be competing. I know that I could be backward in the grass at 200 miles an hour and if I can get tires on it, I’ll still have a shot. So I’m ready for whatever comes my way.”
What’s unique about Connor (Zilisch)?
“I don’t know how his family raised him, but they did a really good job. It’s probably something that we need to study because he turned out to be a great kid… mature beyond his years. It’s not fair how mature he is. There’s definitely still signs that he’s his age but the speed on track together with the composure off track is cool to see. And we’ve already had some good times together this year.”
Are you bummed that we’re not going to have road courses in Chase?
“I don’t care. Whatever the schedule is. If we had 17 road courses in the season or one, I don’t really know that I have an opinion. I just want to know the schedule. Selfishly I’m excited about Charlotte and having another crack at it. I remember the days when you had the All-Star 600 and the fall race there. I’m ready to race wherever they tell us to go. I’ll go anywhere NASCAR says.”
Shane said that he spent some time in a Chevy simulator on the course at San Diego. Have you had that similar experience, and what do you think that race is going to produce?
“No, I definitely let Shane do the grunt work on that. That track is in its infancy of understanding what it’ll actually be on race weekend. So Shane’s helping I think everybody understand what it needs to be and where to place curbs and walls and things. I’ll wait till further down the road.”
You can’t run the feeder series for that weekend. How important is it going to be to watch those other races?
“Oh yeah, we’ll be watching. We’ll see once we get there if there is a good spot to watch outside, or if we need to be inside with a TV and a bunch of cameras to watch. But yeah, those practice sessions will be important. There is no extra time with the other series.”
How much did the last 10 weeks of the season change now that there are no more playoff rounds and it’s just one straight postseason.
“I didn’t plan on it last year, but I don’t plan on backing across any finish lines. From there it’s just a whole body of work over 10 races versus three rounds of three. We know the rules right now just like we knew them last year, and we all go try to win it.”
You’re comfortable with your new crew chief and you said he was your pick. You’ve got to be confident about that but is there any uncertainty or nervousness going into it just with the success you’ve had with Phil (Surgen)?
“I thought I was going to end my Cup career with Phil Surgen. And it just came time for him and his family to be home more, and I understand that. This is a grind. He came to us with plenty of time and explained what he wanted to do. He created his own job, really, at the top of Trackhouse up with Darian Grubb in the leadership group over the competition side. He can help Brandon, he can help Randall (Burnett) now and Stephen (Doran) on our three cars. So he was my vote. It wasn’t like I slammed my fist on the table and said I got to have him. I just said I think this is the guy, and I made my case.”
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