How NASCAR’s Ross Chastain Paid Tribute to His Family’s Heritage and Farming Fans with His Latest Paint Job in Iowa (Exclusive)

NEED TO KNOW

• Ross Chastain’s No. 1 car featured a Busch Light design honoring farmers and supporting the nonprofit Farm Rescue

• Chastain’s agricultural roots inspired his partnership with Busch Light, which began after his father requested “beer and tractors”

• The Iowa Speedway event included a Dierks Bentley performance as part of the brand’s Summer Music Series

NASCAR’s Ross Chastain is proud of his heritage — and on Sunday, Aug. 9, he made sure to honor not only his family, but also farmers across the country with a special paint job seen racing around the track at the Iowa Speedway. 

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On Sunday, the Trackhouse Racing driver’s No. 1 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 was wrapped in Busch Light’s limited-edition “For the Farmers” can as part of the beer brand’s campaign in support of Farm Rescue, an organization that provides critical aid to farm families in crisis. But for Chastain, who is aptly nicknamed the “Watermelon Man” and known for smashing the fruit after coming in first, it also holds special meaning to him. 

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While this is not the first time his stock car has been wrapped in a design highlighting a Busch Light campaign — from initiatives supporting fishing to country music, as well as the beer’s Apple and Lime flavors — the farming can-inspired design was “very intentional,” Chastain, 33, tells PEOPLE inside the Trackhouse hauler on the grounds of the oval short track before the race in Newton. 

“I’ve promoted a lot of brands, but if you notice, it’s very focused on the farmer that I grew up being and still am,” says the driver, whose father, Ralph Chastain, is a generational watermelon farmer from Florida. Additionally, Ross’ younger brother, Chad Chastain, is a professional motorsports driver and works in the family business harvesting the fruit in Western Indiana.

According to Ross, they have watermelons coming out of Owensboro, Ky., Delaware, Maryland and North Carolina. “So we ship Watermelon 365,” he notes.

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Explaining how that agricultural heritage influenced his ongoing sponsorship with the beer company, Chastain recalls that years ago he and his dad first sat down with the Trackhouse sales team. 

During that meeting, Ross remembers “spitballing ideas for what we wanted to do in the future because we felt like we had this blank canvas to go and create whatever we wanted on the No. 1 car.” Then, at one point in the conversation, Ralph was asked, “What would you like?” His response was, “Beer and tractors.” Not long after that, the sponsorship with Anheuser-Busch was formed. 

“Whenever they wrap this beer can, it can seem, I think, insignificant to some people,” Ross, who helped create the “Melon Man” watermelon logo early in his professional driving career and was very hands-on with this latest design, says now. “But to farmers, it is a thank you. And I think that — well, I know it, it means a lot to my family and to families across out here in Iowa.”

The farming can itself “is saying thank you right there on their beer,” the driver continues, noting that many of the fans, a number of whom he got to meet in the days prior “all drove in today as they’re in the middle of their growing seasons with corn.” And while they enjoy what unfolds on the track, Ross adds that everything his team and sponsor are doing is “a thank you to them for what they do because, out here, corn is the big thing and corn makes the world go around.”

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Through the initiative, Busch Light says it’s encouraging consumers to “Choose Beer Grown Here” in direct support of American farmers. To date, its partnership with Farm Rescue “has raised over $1.5 million and supported more than 1,300 families.”

In addition to Ross racing to a seventh-place finish with his specialty wrap, the brand continued its Busch Light Summer Music Series. This time, Dierks Bentley took the stage to perform a number of hits in front of farmers and fans alike at the Iowa Speedway.

“There’s not much better than country music, racing and cold beer. We had a great time as part of the Busch Light Summer Music Series,” the country singer, 50, tells PEOPLE. He adds, “The energy of a racing crowd is unmatched and the fans in Iowa brought it in a big way.”

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