October 24, 2022 | By Lee Spencer

Ross Chastain hopes to turn lessons learned into a Cup title

When the 2022 season began, Ross Chastain was not listed among the favorites expected to qualify for the Championship 4 Round at Phoenix Raceway.

In three previous seasons on the NASCAR Cup tour, Chastain’s best result was 20th in points.

But with only this weekend’s race at Martinsville Speedway remaining to determine the final champion contenders, the 29-year-old driver from Alva, Florida is second in the standings with a 19-point cushion over fifth-place Denny Hamlin.

“It’s days like (Sunday) and last week (Las Vegas) where we haven’t started the best, we haven’t scored a ton of stage points, but we put ourselves in position and we executed,” Chastain said following the Dixie Vodka 400. “The guys on pit road just got better and better all day.

“Hopefully, we don’t start as far behind as we did in the spring, I think we started over in Danville, (Va.). Hopefully we start closer to the front. We just want to race against the guys we want to race around and put ourselves in position.”

At the Martinsville race in April, Chastain started 27th and finished fifth. The result marked his fifth top-five finish in the first eight races of the season. On Sunday, Chastain finished second at his hometown track, Miami-Homestead Speedway. His 13 top-fives are the most among Cup Series competitors. He is tied with Chase Elliott for most top 10s with 19.

While Christopher Bell had a remarkable fourth-place average in the first round of the Playoffs, Chastain holds the best average finish in the Round of 8—second. It’s not surprising that Chastain doesn’t want 2022 to end.

“I hope I never wake up,” Chastain said.

Clearly, Chastain has made mistakes along the way. He’s provoked the ire of Hamlin and champions Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick. Despite driving for four seasons in the Cup Series, the competition up front is far different from racing at the back of the pack.

But he has owned up to his errors. He prefers to embrace mistakes as teaching moments.

“I’m learning,” Chastain said. “I’m evolving. And I feel like I’m putting a lot of effort into that. There’s blocks I could have made (at Homestead) that had we ran this race in March I would have made those blocks. Today I didn’t.

“I’m not saying I’m perfect. I’m not. But I just continue to learn, evolve and surround myself with the best people I can and I think that’s showing with a few people in the garage patting me on the back every now and then.”

Chastain knows to receive those accolades he must start by giving his fellow competitors equal respect on the race track. On Sunday, he conscientiously gave Hamlin an extra lane on the track rather than crowding the driver. While he raced the No. 11 Toyota “hard”, Chastain ran like a driver who wants to be in the Cup Series for the long haul.

“I feel like I am in a good spot in the garage,” Chastain said. “The summer was definitely tough, and I learned a lot from a lot of that…It’s incredible to race against your heroes, but it’s kind of odd and humbling when your heroes get mad at you.

“I’m learning a lot from them now, and I want to beat them.”