"It was a grind today" - Ross Chastain rues 'mediocre' P8 finish at Ambetter 301

Trackhouse Racing driver Ross Chastain ended his racing weekend in New Hampshire with a well-earned top 10 finish after taking 8th place. This marked his 14th top 10 finish and 6th consecutive top 10 finish this season.

Before heading to New Hampshire, the Alves, Florida native had scored a second-place finish in Atlanta. On Sunday, he was hoping to join Chase Elliott on the list of drivers with three season wins.

The racing weekend didn’t pan out as he had expected, starting with the qualifying race where he placed 18th, a pretty tough position from which to secure a win. After a tight qualifying race, the Ambetter 301 came closer, and keeping track of balance was a little bit hard for him.

In Atlanta, Ross Chastain won almost all the restarts, but in New Hampshire, things were a bit different. According to him, his #1 World Express Camaro ZL1 was tight on the restarts.

During a post-race interview, Chastain reflected on his experience on the track, saying:

“It was a grind today. We just hovered between seventh and 20th. We just never had the balance of the car great. We were tight all day; really tight on restarts. It was really tough to make ground. The two tire to four tire strategies, I was just usually way too tight to fight those guys.”

Despite a tight day, he managed to secure a P8 finish, followed by his teammate Daniel Suarez, who finished ninth, locking the entire Trackhouse Racing in the top 10 finish. Following an impressive P8-P9 finish, Chastain sent a message to his team to come up with fast cars, stating:

“If eighth and ninth is a mediocre day, I think we’re doing OK.”

In the past few races, Ross Chastain has hit the headlines for his aggressive driving, but for the recently concluded Ambetter 301, he wasn’t ready to end it on a controversial note.

One of his tight positions at Ambetter 301 was when he was running door-to-door with Denny Hamlin, one of his previous victims. In the end, Hamlin ran him up, and Chastain was willing to fight back, but he didn’t make contact.

Following the Atlanta incident between Hamlin and Chastain, the former cited that they would race each other pretty hard for the rest of the year, but that wasn’t the case in New Hampshire. The best thing about Chastain is that he has always owned up for his on-track mistakes.

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Ross Chastain is among the drivers with the most top 10 finishes in the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season

For the 2022 season, Ross Chastain has already bagged two career wins. In addition, he’s among the drivers with the most top ten finishes since the season began. With a low number of DNFs, he has managed to climb to the top of the drivers’ standing, and he is currently standing second behind Chase Elliot with 667 points.

He is fully booked for the 2022 playoffs, and his goal is to deliver the first championship for his young team, Trackhouse Racing. With 15 races on the line, Chastain is still hoping to add more wins to his record.