LEBANON, Tenn. — Pole winner Ross Chastain got his third career NASCAR Cup Series win and first of the 2023 season Sunday night at the Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway.
Chastain, who drives for Trackhouse Racing, a Nashville-based race team co-owned by entertainer Pitbull and former racer Justin Marks, earned his first win since Talladega in April 2022
At lap 231, Chastain had the perfect opportunity and snuck past Denny Hamlin. The 2022 series runner-up maintained his lead after the final pit stops of the night. Martin Truex Jr. fought for the top spot coming out the pit stops, but couldn’t pass Chastain, who navigated lap traffic.
Between his dominant display in Saturday’s qualifying – en route to his first career Cup Series pole – and his closing tussle with points leader Martin Truex Jr., the battle for first was fairly open as Chastain hovered in contention.
Chastain entered fourth in the season points race and wound up leading a race-high 100 laps at the 1.33-mile, D-shaped concrete oval. That included the final 34 laps as the 30-year-old had to weave by some slower traffic to hold off Truex by 0.789 seconds.
The driver known as “Melon Man” celebrated clinching a playoff berth with a burnout before smashing a watermelon onto the start-finish line. Chastain, who has been criticized for his aggressive driving style, called this win a reminder to every competitor not to believe their critics.
“I got to tell you a lot of self-reflection through all this, but I had a group that believed in me and they didn’t let me get down,” Chastain said. “And they bring rocket ships, and I just try to point them to victory lane.”
Truex found himself in a familiar position when he opened the second stage with the lead. But he couldn’t hold off his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Hamlin, who took advantage of a chaotic second stage to steal the front position.
Truex led 50 laps as the season points leader tried to string together back-to-back wins. He won at Sonoma going into NASCAR’s lone break in the 38-race season.
ANALYSIS: Where the NASCAR stood with 10 races remaining before playoffs
Truex finished ahead of Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Hamlin, both in Toyotas. Chase Elliott was fourth and Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson was fifth.
“The field is so close,” Hamlin said. “Everyone is running the same times. It’s really hard. I think we had a third-place car the entire race. The 19 (Truex) was a little better, and the 1 (Chastain) came on strong there in the end.”
Stage one winner Tyler Reddick knocked himself out of contention with a shaky pit stop entrance. He was penalized two laps for losing his right rear tire in the pit road after spinning out into the pit. The caution he forced quickly led to another caution, when Brad Keselowski’s poor restart sent Ryan Blaney, head-on, into the interior wall, ending his night.
“I don’t really know what happened,” Blaney said after the crash. “I just couldn’t get straightened out … I thought I’d be ok but I just never got back right.”
Before Hamlin took the lead, Truex was the best of three racers in a three-car struggle. Prevailing in a multi-lap battle with polesitter Ross Chastain and William Byron, Truex earned a strong lead with a second in between him and the closest driver. But back-to-back cautions derailed his comfortable position.
Contributing: The Associated Press
