NEWTON, Iowa— Ross Chastain needed a good day at Iowa Speedway. He got one.
A seventh-place finish worth 43 points, which included 13 vital stage points, saw the wheelman of the Trackhouse Racing No. 1 vault three points up the standings to 18th. More importantly, he reduced his deficit to The Chase cut line from 82 points to a much more manageable 47 back with three races remaining in the regular season.
Teammate Connor Zilisch also secured his second-best run of his rookie Cup Series season at 11th place, and it’s also his best finish in the Cup Series on an oval.
Meanwhile, Shane van Gisbergen had a difficult day, coming home 30th but remaining 15th in the standings, with just 10 points cut off his advantage to 17th (+47), so it could have been a lot worse.
On pit road postrace, Chastain was delighted with his rookie crew chief’s call to run long before the final stop.
“Yeah, [the call] from Brandon McSwain, crew chief, all the way till we pitted, I think there were only eight of us on the lead lap,” Chastain told Frontstretch. “So, early when they all pit, protecting against being a lap down if a caution comes out when we first pit, because you’re gonna be a lap down if you go on the early side and then, just having so much of the field trapped. I love it.
Look, it’s his first year on the box and he’s been a seat over, but being that guy that gets to make that final call, we had to switch channels because a button got stuck and somebody’s mic was open. So at one point I’m like, I know we already confirmed we’re on two, but like it’s been pretty quiet for a while, but I quickly realized we’re gonna run all the way to the end of our fuel window.”
Chastain was also aided by a strong Saturday with a solid practice and qualifying run as he rolled off the grid in ninth, one spot behind Zilisch.
“Yeah, the effort hasn’t been lacking,” Chastain pointed out. “We haven’t not tried when we’re slow, but when we unloaded, we had grip and we had speed in qualifying. Then we had grip in the race compared to other cars. So, yeah, I’m all for it. Just, sign me up for weekends like this.”
Zilisch was also pleased with his run amidst the Iowa cornfields.
“Yeah, it was a solid day,” Zilisch said. “We got points in both stages, made an adjustment to start the third stage, and we just didn’t fire off as good as we needed to and lost a little bit of track position there. But, yeah, Randall [Burnett] called a good race, got us some spots back through strategy in the last stage. And yeah, finished 11th, so a much-needed decent day. I wish it could have been a little better, but we’ll take this right now.”
The Trackhouse duo now looks ahead to two more shorter ovals at Richmond Raceway and New Hampshire Motor Speedway in the next two weeks.
“We’ve always had like one car that’s fast at the short tracks as a group, but I think we need to do a better job of working together to make sure all three cars can run well and, and be quick,” Zilisch said. “We had a solid day with Ross and I. I wish Shane could have had a little better day just with his spot on the cut line, but it’s good that we’re at least bringing cars to the track that have some speed.”
For Chastain though, one strong weekend won’t be enough, a point he made as he looked ahead.
“I would say this was by far our best event, so this cannot be a splash in the water. It’s got to be a tsunami.”
Danny Peters has written for Frontstretch since 2006. An English transplant living in San Francisco, by way of New York City, he’s had an award-winning marketing career with some of the biggest companies sponsoring sports. Working with racers all over the country, his freelance writing has even reached outside the world of racing to include movie screenplays.