Ross Chastain completes dominant outing in Trackhouse home race

Trackhouse Racing Team is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, so it only made sense for Trackhouse driver Ross Chastain to turn Sunday’s race at Nashville Superspeedway into his finest outing as a NASCAR Cup Series driver to date. He started on the pole for the first time in his Cup career and led nearly a third of the race en route to his first victory of the 2023 season.

Chastain led 99 of 300 laps, nearly twice as many as the second most by Martin Truex Jr. Although Truex tried to catch Chastain in the closing laps, he was unable to do so.

“I first met Martin Truex Jr. at a Bass Pro Shops in Fort Myers, Florida when our local one opened,” recalled Chastain. “He signed a Chevy Trucks hat for me. Still have it on my childhood bedroom wall hanging up. The Sharpie has about faded off, barely still there. He was a hero, idol of mine.

“To go to battle against him, have criticism from him, go back and forth, then to have him air block me at Dover like he did, when I thought we were just as fast, was humbling. To go up against my heroes like that, to beat him tonight, drive by him and the #11 (Denny Hamlin), was definitely a statement. It felt good.”

Tyler Reddick and Hamlin won the first two stages, but the former was taken out of contention during green-flag stops on lap 140 when his right-rear wheel came off as he came to pit. He was held for a lap and rejoined the race two laps down, eventually having to settle for a distant thirtieth.

Reddick’s incident was one of two race-related cautions. The second and largest came on the restart following the Reddick spin when Brad Keselowski had a poor jump, causing those behind him to stack up. As they tried to dodge Keselowski, Ryan Blaney and Kyle Busch collided which caused the former to shoot into the inside wall, which is not reinforced by SAFER barriers.

“I don’t know why there’s no safer barrier there,” said Blaney. “That’s pretty ridiculous, honestly. Hardest hit I’ve ever had in my life.”

After the race, a particularly bizarre accident occurred when Chastain’s team-mate Daniel Suárez attempted to join him on track to celebrate, only to hit Chase Briscoe as he and the rest of the field were coming to pit road upon completing their cooldown lap.

Xfinity Series race winner A.J. Allmendinger finished tenth.

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	1	1	Ross Chastain	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	300	Running
2	6	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	300	Running
3	8	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	300	Running
4	14	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	300	Running
5	7	5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	300	Running
6	5	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	300	Running
7	22	20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	300	Running
8	23	43	Erik Jones	Legacy Motor Club	Chevrolet	300	Running
9	11	8	Kyle Busch	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	300	Running
10	19	16	A.J. Allmendinger	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	300	Running
11	20	6	Brad Keselowski	RFK Racing	Ford	300	Running
12	10	99	Daniel Suárez	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	300	Running
13	26	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	300	Running
14	16	54	Ty Gibbs	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	300	Running
15	9	23	Bubba Wallace	23XI Racing	Toyota	300	Running
16	25	41	Ryan Preece	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	300	Running
17	15	48	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	300	Running
18	12	17	Chris Buescher	RFK Racing	Ford	300	Running
19	4	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	300	Running
20	36	7	Corey LaJoie	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	300	Running
21	31	21	Harrison Burton	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	300	Running
22	28	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	299	Running
23	3	31	Justin Haley	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	299	Running
24	17	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	299	Running
25	21	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	299	Running
26	30	42	Noah Gragson	Legacy Motor Club	Chevrolet	299	Running
27	24	2	Austin Cindric	Team Penske	Ford	299	Running
28	33	34	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	299	Running
29	29	51	J.J. Yeley*	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	298	Running
30	2	45	Tyler Reddick	23XI Racing	Toyota	298	Running
31	18	14	Chase Briscoe	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	298	Running
32	34	77	Ty Dillon	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	298	Running
33	32	15	Brennan Poole*	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	297	Running
34	35	78	Josh Bilicki*	Live Fast Motorsports	Chevrolet	297	Running
35	27	38	Todd Gilliland	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	296	Running
36	13	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	146	Accident

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