COTA craziness culminates in Chastain’s first Cup checkered

It only required a mad scramble on the final lap that resulted in plenty of contact and anger, but Ross Chastain can finally call himself a NASCAR Cup Series race winner. A wild run to the finish between him, A.J. Allmendinger, and Alex Bowman ended with all three drivers bumping each other and Allmendinger eventually spinning while Chastain held on to win for the first time in the premier series and on a road course.

Chastain started sixteenth while Ryan Blaney was on the pole. Daniel Suárez, Chastain’s partner at Trackhouse Racing Team, qualified second and dominated the opening stage en route to the win. Blaney, Alex Bowman, Joey Logano, Kyle Larson, Justin Haley, Chase Elliott, Chase Briscoe, Harrison Burton, and Austin Cindric rounded out the top ten.

Despite Suárez’s day getting off to a strong start, power steering problems began to plague his #99 car as the stage came to an end. He eventually fell off the pace as his power steering was eliminated, forcing him to fight the car to what would eventually be a twenty-fourth. With Suárez out of the picture, Cindric dominated Stage #2 before pitting which cycled Denny Hamlin into the lead and eventual stage victory. Kyle Busch, Logano, Blaney, Aric Almirola, Austin Dillon, Burton, Chastain, Cindric, and Bubba Wallace followed.

While the first two stages ran caution-free, the incidents necessitating yellow flags ramped up in the final segment with six cautions being called. Combined with a lack of local cautions in NASCAR, the first five were all for debris or single-car stalls or spins too close to the rest of the racing. The sixth and largest came on the penultimate scheduled lap when Logano, Kurt Busch, and Kyle Larson made contact and went into the gravel and wall outside turn one.

In overtime, Saturday’s Xfinity Series winner Allmendinger battled with Chastain and Tyler Reddick. Chastain held the advantage through the first lap while Allmendinger and Bowman gave chase before catching him in the final sector. Allmendinger made his move in turn fifteen and pushed Chastain wide, and Bowman joined the fight with a dive along the inside line two corners later. Allmendinger and Chastain made up the ground before the latter pushed the other into Bowman, causing Allmendinger to spin. As Bowman ran wide to avoid further collision with the spinning Allmendinger, Chastain remained inside and held the lead for the final two straights to score his and Trackhouse’s maiden victories.

In securing the win, Chastain becomes one of thirty-nine drivers with a victory in each of NASCAR’s three national series. He is the seventeenth driver to score his first career Cup win on a road course, a title that is held by three other drivers in the EchoPark Grand Prix field (Allmendinger at Watkins Glen 2014, Elliott at Watkins Glen 2018, and Christopher Bell at Daytona RC 2021).

“To go up against some of the best with A.J., I know he is going to be upset with me, but we raced hard, both of us, and he owes me one,” Chastain told FOX Sports. “But when it comes to a Cup win, I can’t let that go down without a fight.”

Despite the celebratory nature, others were not as thrilled about Chastain’s conduct. Allmendinger’s Kaulig Racing team tweeted that Chastain “[h]ad to wreck us to beat us”, to which Trackhouse responded with a “Come on now….” before Kaulig eventually issued congratulations. Had Allmendinger won, he would have become the first driver to reach double-digit national series road course triumphs.

“At the end of the day, each person has to make the move that they’re comfortable with, and that’s fine,” Allmendinger told FOX. “We know we had a shot to win the race. It’s tough to win a Cup race, so when you put yourself in a position to legitimately run up front all day and have a shot to win it, it’s a pretty great day. Unfortunately, we needed about two more corners.”

Chastain was aware of his driving style coming to the finish and acknowledged the impact it would have on his relationship with Allmendinger. The two are close friends and previously Xfinity team-mates at Kaulig in 2020.

“I don’t race anybody any different,” he continued in his post-race press conference. “I’ve cost A.J. a win at Daytona in the Xfinity Series, and he was obviously a quarter mile away from winning here. He has taught me a lot, and I’m sure that our friendship will hurt for this. I feel like I had started to win some of his friendship back, and just being nice to each other when you see each other. It took a while.

“I hate that because I’ve lived through that in my career for twelfth place in Xfinity. I’ve fought, and I’ve roughed people up and gotten into people. I’ve wrecked (Trackhouse owner) Justin Marks. He was going to win Road America in 2016, 2017. I wrecked him and James Davison for no reason. It’s not lost on me that I make some of the same mistakes. It’s just staring down a Cup Series win. I just couldn’t let that go.”

Bowman’s advice for Chastain? Alluding to his own actions following run-ins with Hamlin at Martinsville in 2021 and Busch at Las Vegas a few weeks ago (the two also tangled in Saturday’s Camping World Truck Series event) in his interview with FOX’s Bob Pockrass: “Put it on a t-shirt and sell the hell out of it.”

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	16	1	Ross Chastain	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	69	Running
2	5	48	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	69	Running
3	7	20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	69	Running
4	12	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	69	Running
5	4	8	Tyler Reddick	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	69	Running
6	1	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	69	Running
7	17	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	69	Running
8	10	2	Austin Cindric	Team Penske	Ford	69	Running
9	30	43	Erik Jones	Petty GMS Motorsports	Chevrolet	69	Running
10	21	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	69	Running
11	18	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	69	Running
12	24	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	69	Running
13	27	34	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	69	Running
14	26	6	Brad Keselowski	RFK Racing	Ford	69	Running
15	9	31	Justin Haley	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	69	Running
16	29	38	Todd Gilliland	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	69	Running
17	19	21	Harrison Burton	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	69	Running
18	8	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	69	Running
19	25	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	69	Running
20	33	42	Ty Dillon	Petty GMS Motorsports	Chevrolet	69	Running
21	22	17	Chris Buescher	RFK Racing	Ford	69	Running
22	34	77	Josh Bilicki*	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	69	Running
23	3	41	Cole Custer	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	69	Running
24	2	99	Daniel Suárez	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	69	Running
25	31	50	Kaz Grala*	The Money Team Racing	Chevrolet	69	Running
26	37	66	Boris Said	MBM Motorsports	Ford	69	Running
27	35	51	Cody Ware	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	69	Running
28	15	18	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	69	Running
29	13	5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	69	Running
30	14	14	Chase Briscoe	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	69	Running
31	6	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	69	Running
32	11	45	Kurt Busch	23XI Racing	Toyota	69	Running
33	20	16	A.J. Allmendinger*	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	68	Running
34	36	27	Loris Hezemans*	Team Hezeberg	Ford	62	Rear Gear
35	38	15	Joey Hand	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	60	Suspension
36	32	7	Corey LaJoie	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	57	Engine
37	28	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	52	Drivetrain
38	23	23	Bubba Wallace	23XI Racing	Toyota	44	Suspension
39	39	78	Andy Lally*	Live Fast Motorsports	Ford	19	Suspension

Italics – Competing for Rookie of the Year
* – Ineligible for Cup points