Ross Chastain Details Calculated Strategy That Beat Rick Hendrick’s Star in Coca-Cola 600 Duel

Ross Chastain battling against William Byron was a déjà vu moment for the race fans during last Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600. Back in 2023, the Trackhouse Racing driver did more than just ruffle feathers against the HMS drivers. During the Darlington race, Chastain and Larson were involved in a heated battle and with just 6 to go, the No. 1 car made contact with the No. 5 HMS Chevy, and they both ended up wrecked.

This came after incidents at Talladega and Dover, and veteran team owner Rick Hendrick sent out clear warnings to the fiery driver. “He’s going to make a lot of enemies. It’s hard to win a championship when you’ve got a lot of payback out there.” And the winner of the Darlington race was William Byron. Although he was able to punch his ticket to victory lane that day, he understood how difficult it was to battle against Chastain after the Charlotte race. The pass for the race lead wasn’t clean or conventional, but the HMS driver didn’t react or throw a tantrum; rather, he took it on his chin.

Meanwhile, Chastain, who finally pulled himself out of the slump pit, was patting himself on the back for the moves he made for the win. And once he got the lead on lap 395, he wasn’t in a hurry to get to the start-finish line. Rather, his focus was to keep the #24 car in his rear-view mirror and block any moves that would jeopardize his lead, which is the trademark Chastain style of racing.

He told PRN Live, “I don’t want to just win races by 10 seconds a lap. I have no interest in winning by a lap ever. So as soon as I got the lead, it was just, ‘Don’t hit the wall, don’t get tight.’ We’re both tight, the #24 and #1 car had very similar setups tonight. Part of the key partner alliance, we work together. So I knew that he was tight, I knew I was tight. We were both sliding our front tires, so I just thought, ‘Give myself some wiggle room off the wall’ and he wasn’t able to get back to me.”

Chastain knew that getting the lead wasn’t enough to get the job done. He saw that both Denny Hamlin and Byron, who were battling for the lead, would exchange it multiple times, and both of them looked to race away from the runner-up car, so he was prepared to deal with the situation differently. As the two cars crossed the finish line, the difference between them was just 0.673. A heartbreaking result for the HMS driver, who swept the three stages, led 238 laps and was arguably the best car on long run speeds, but it wasn’t his night.

This was a special effort not just by Chastain but by his entire team. The #1 team had to go to their backup car after the driver crashed during the practice run. The entire crew pulled off an all-nighter and worked on the backup car to make it race-ready, and they sure did a good job. To make this even special, Chastain also added himself to the history books. As per NASCAR, he became the first driver to win from an official starting position of last since Bobby Allison at Richmond Fairgrounds in 1969.

Huge results for Trackhouse Racing and Chastain, but it was a bitter defeat for William Byron. This was his third straight top 5 finish at the Coca-Cola 600, and despite being the dominant car, he came short. But there are reasons for him to be optimistic, despite this bitter defeat.

William Byron had a solid race weekend at Charlotte.

Ahead of the Sunday Cup Series race, Byron had bagged the Xfinity Series win in a thrilling fashion. He managed to escape the chaos on the last restart and was able to get by Justin Allgaier and snatch the win. “Man, it feels awesome to win at my home racetrack,” but this sentiment shifted after he lost out on the crown jewel NASCAR race.

“I don’t really have many words for it. I wish I won. [Chastain] was catching me, I was trying to defend, I put a couple good defensive moves on but I got loose in (Turns) 3 and 4, and that was really it. Disappointing just to lead that many laps and such a great effort by our whole team. Yeah, I guess just could have anticipated that last run a little better.” He said after the race.

But looking at the bigger picture, he still is in the commanding position to secure the regular-season championship. With his teammate Kyle Larson crashing out of the race, he has now taken the command of the points standings, and thanks to his stage wins, he’s carved up a good gap. With 499 points, the gap to second-place driver Larson is 29. This was also his third runner-up result this year, so as far as speed and performance are concerned, the #24 team is headed in the right direction.

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