Ross Chastain completes dominant outing in Trackhouse home race

Trackhouse Racing Team is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, so it only made sense for Trackhouse driver Ross Chastain to turn Sunday’s race at Nashville Superspeedway into his finest outing as a NASCAR Cup Series driver to date. He started on the pole for the first time in his Cup career and led nearly a third of the race en route to his first victory of the 2023 season.

Chastain led 99 of 300 laps, nearly twice as many as the second most by Martin Truex Jr. Although Truex tried to catch Chastain in the closing laps, he was unable to do so.

“I first met Martin Truex Jr. at a Bass Pro Shops in Fort Myers, Florida when our local one opened,” recalled Chastain. “He signed a Chevy Trucks hat for me. Still have it on my childhood bedroom wall hanging up. The Sharpie has about faded off, barely still there. He was a hero, idol of mine.

“To go to battle against him, have criticism from him, go back and forth, then to have him air block me at Dover like he did, when I thought we were just as fast, was humbling. To go up against my heroes like that, to beat him tonight, drive by him and the #11 (Denny Hamlin), was definitely a statement. It felt good.”

Tyler Reddick and Hamlin won the first two stages, but the former was taken out of contention during green-flag stops on lap 140 when his right-rear wheel came off as he came to pit. He was held for a lap and rejoined the race two laps down, eventually having to settle for a distant thirtieth.

Reddick’s incident was one of two race-related cautions. The second and largest came on the restart following the Reddick spin when Brad Keselowski had a poor jump, causing those behind him to stack up. As they tried to dodge Keselowski, Ryan Blaney and Kyle Busch collided which caused the former to shoot into the inside wall, which is not reinforced by SAFER barriers.

“I don’t know why there’s no safer barrier there,” said Blaney. “That’s pretty ridiculous, honestly. Hardest hit I’ve ever had in my life.”

After the race, a particularly bizarre accident occurred when Chastain’s team-mate Daniel Suárez attempted to join him on track to celebrate, only to hit Chase Briscoe as he and the rest of the field were coming to pit road upon completing their cooldown lap.

Xfinity Series race winner A.J. Allmendinger finished tenth.

Race results