Why winning at Darlington is “top of my list” for Ross Chastain

Already a crown jewel winner with his dramatic last-to-first victory in this year’s Coca Cola 600, Ross Chastain is looking to add another one this weekend as the NASCAR Cup Playoffs begin with the Southern 500 at Darlington.

“It’s my favorite track,” said Chastain during Playoff Media Day on Wednesday. “It’s just absolutely top of my list. Whenever I look at tracks that I want to win at, and I want to work to be better at, Darlington is it.  I’ve been through an incredible learning process since I first drove on that track (learning) how to drive it, and getting a Cup win there is absolutely top of my list.”

It’s a race track he’s had plenty of success at, but no Cup wins just yet. He has finished between third and fifth in three of the last four Southern 500s, and he nearly won the spring race here just a couple of years ago.

Chastain’s complicated history at Darlington

His lone victory came in a Truck race during the 2024 season, but that doesn’t even begin to tell the whole story. Darlington essentially put Chastain on the map. After competing with a variety of lower-funded teams for years, he finally got a shot in race-winning equipment at Darlington in 2018.

Driving for Chip Ganassi Racing in the Xfinity Series, he won both stages from pole position and led over half the race, However, it came to an abrupt end with less than 40 laps to go when he clashed with Cup superstar Kevin Harvick. Racing hard for the lead, Harvick tried to pin Chastain behind a slower car. It didn’t work, and the two drivers were side-by-side through treacherous Turn 2, resulting in significant contact.

After the crash, Chastain hooked Harvick’s car in anger, and the 2014 Cup champion later offered some comments that didn’t age particularly well: “You’ve got a really inexperienced guy in a really fast car that made a really bad move, and then wrecked me down the back straightaway and hooked me to the right. Probably the reason he’ll never get to drive many of them again.”

Chastain is set to make his 250th career start in the Cup Series this weekend, and ironically, he became Harvick’s successor as the new representative of Anheuser-Busch in NASCAR.

But the theme of Darlington race wins slipping through Chastain’s fingers has been a constant throughout his career. He wrecked while battling Denny Hamlin for the win in an Xfinity race there in 2020, and wrecked battling Hamlin again for the lead in 2022 — this time in a Cup race.

Last year, he was leading with 25 laps to go on an alternate strategy, and couldn’t hold the lead with older tires. And this past spring, he was leading the Xfinity race with 16 laps to go before a slow pit stop cost him track position.

Watch: Ross Chastain, Kyle Larson tangle late at Darlington Raceway

But Chastain’s most infamous loss came early in 2023. He was leading the regular season standings at the time, and he was all anyone wanted to talk about. This was because the ‘Melon Man’ had angered just about everyone in the garage, and was one week removed from punching Noah Gragson in the face on national TV.

Chastain went on to lead 93 laps that day, and was battling Kyle Larson for the win in the closing laps. Larson, irked by an earlier restart where Chastain ran him up the track, pushed Chastain into the wall. However, a wreck behind them triggered a yellow, and Chastain was actually credited with the race lead.

On the ensuing restart, Chastain decided to return the favor, but it did not go the way he expected. He ran Larson up into the wall, but also himself, wrecking both cars in front of the field in a disasterous moment for Chevrolet. A mountain of criticism rained down on Chastain, and NASCAR’s most successful team owner, Rick Hendrick, was at the center of it all.

Chastain retreated to the shadows after that, and those explosive run-ins with rivals that had become commonplace were now few and far between. But over two years later, while Trackhouse has lost some of its edge speed-wise, Chastain has become a far more calculated driver with his aggression.

Could the No. 1 win Darlington this weekend?

Ross Chastain, Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet

Photo by: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

His Coke 600 drive showcased that, passing the entire field, stalking race leader William Byron for several laps, and executing the winning pass with just a few laps to go in the 600-mile marathon race. While the summer has been a bit of a slump for the No. 1 team, Chastain believes “we have the potential to pull on track at Darlington and have the same level of group that we had that Saturday (in Charlotte),” claimed Chastain.

“I felt it into the first corner, off pit road in practice and rolled down in turn three, and when I came off turn four, I felt right away that the car had grip and then it was up to me to go make lap time. If we have that feeling at Darlington and that balance in the car, it’s going to be a fun weekend.”

And if he were to finally win the Southern 500 in his eighth appearance, it would mean a lot more to him than an instant ticket to the next round of the Playoffs.

“It would mean everything,” said Chastain. “I mean, it’s a life achievement, similar to winning the Coca Cola 600, but I put Darlington at the very top. So, any fall race — Southern 500 race — I will work a long time to win, whether that’s this year or sometime later in my career. I know when I get done, I’m going to put a full body of work into trying to win there, and whether we ever do it or not is to be determined. 

“But short term, it would mean, say at World Wide Technology Raceway and Bristol (the other two races in the Round of 16), I would be walking around a whole lot lighter than if we don’t.”