"It’s as far across the page" - Ross Chastain shares his bucket list destination, despite SVG’s playful discouragement

Ross Chastain spoke about the destination in the top spot on his bucket list in a recent interview. Chastain claimed he had never been in either direction of North America and wanted to explore the 'Land Down Under'.

Chastain is a full-time Cup Series driver competing for Trackhouse Racing, piloting the #1 Chevy Camaro, and is in his third season with the Justin Marks-led organization. In his debut season with the team, the Florida native claimed a runner-up spot in the final standings and has so far accumulated a total of four Cup Series career wins with Trackhouse.

Speaking with Jeff Gluck, Chastain shared his top priority destination on his bucket list in The Athletic's 12 Questions podcast. He said:

"Go to Australia. Mainly just because on the (map), it’s as far across the page as you can get."

Chastain stated that he also took suggestions from his teammate, Shane van Gisbergen, to which the latter had an unexpected response. Gisbergen hails from New Zealand and has been touring in Australia while competing in the Supercars Championship.

"I have talked to Shane (van Gisbergen) a little bit about New Zealand and Australia to get some tips. He’s just kind of like, “Ah, you don’t want to go down there, mate. Just stay here.” But I just want to be able to, in my mind, say, “I’ve went around the world.” And I’ve never been east or west of North America," Chastain added.

Gisbergen is set to join the Trackhouse Racing shed for the 2025 Cup Series as a full-time driver behind the #88 Chevy. The three-time Supercars champion will be the team's third entry alongside #1 Chastain and #99 Daniel Suarez.

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"He's just a great guy" - Ross Chastain on working with Shane van Gisbergen

Shane van Gisbergen became Ross Chastain's teammate after the former debuted in last year's inaugural Chicago Street race. Gisbergen clinched his first Cup Series victory in the debut race.

In a media interaction, Chastain shared his experience working with Gisbergen when asked about tapping the Kiwi's expertise in street racing. The #1 Chevrolet driver was quoted as saying:

"We've spent a lot of time together, a lot of time running. The guy's huge in the running so if I want time with him I just go, I go, I go run, and we meet, and him and I and Nick Sanchez, we just go run and talk, and then usually we start running fast enough that I run out of air to talk with so I got to use it to breathe." [0:55]

Chastain added:

"But yeah it is so great, he's just a great guy and yeah he has little tidbits here and there and then there's just so much data we can look at so I can, I can learn just as much hearing from him as I can looking through the stuff."

Shane van Gisbergen underlined his street racing expertise by clinching three victories on road courses in his rookie Xfinity season.

On the other hand, Ross Chastain is struggling to garner enough points to move above the playoff cutline. He is now 27 points below Chris Buescher, who holds the last spot in the top 16.

With one race left in the regular season, Chastain will look to clinch a playoff spot in the Cook Out Southern 500 race at Darlington Raceway on September 1.