It’s not that Ross Chastain doesn’t like pressure but if not in the playoffs, he at least enjoys the opportunity to go about his business without the extra scrutiny, and the added spotlight that comes with racing for a championship.
He would rather be in the mix, of course, but there are benefits.
“I’ve never been so happy to watch y’all walk by, everybody in this room,” Chastain told the media after winning the Hollywood Casino 500. “I’ve never been so happy to watch (the Netflix documentary crew) walk the other way when I get there.
“Like, the boom mics are going that way. They’re following Daniel (Suarez, teammate). They’re talking to Justin (Marks, team owner) but none of it’s about me. To be honest, I love it. I’m all for it.”
Chastain and Trackhouse suffered through a pretty frustrating summer slump and the lack of media attention simply allowed the No. 1 team to work on things without the noise that is enveloping Suarez and the No. 99 team right now.
“We want to let all of y’all in,” Chastain said. “We want to let y’all see us feel what we’re doing. We want to open the curtain but I have seen some benefits from not having to do all the other stuff. I had more time to do things that I thought were better for the race car.”
Like what?
“I know that if I show up Monday morning and try and Tuesday morning and try and Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and sometimes trying and being the most benefit for the team and for your race car and the performance is actually to go to sleep early,” Chastain said. “It’s not to get that extra workout in. It’s not to try harder in the gym. It’s actually to taper off, and that’s something that I’ve learned and have put into my life.
“Sometimes it’s going to sleep early yesterday was a big part of why I can actually perform better today. I took a snack in the car. I kept looking at it, but I wasn’t ready for it, and then all of a sudden we were in the last restart, and I thought, Well, I’m not going to eat it now.”
And somewhat under-the-radar, Chastain has found some speed over the past month since missing the playoffs. They have reacquired their ‘disruptor’ identity that they have carried with them since their arrival in 2022.
Chastain, crew chief Phil Surgen, and even their playoff tested No. 99 teammates have put in the work over the summer and it paid dividends at Kansas.
“I got asked this morning if it was more difficult to compete when other drivers have kind of risen to the occasion, and I don’t think that’s the case for this group,” Surgen said. “We’re giving 100 percent every week.”
The No. 1 team has actually scored the second most points in the four races since the playoffs began, behind only Alex Bowman and the Hendrick Motorsports No. 48. Surgen said they aren’t doing anything different now from before in that the goal is to keep showing up and trying to win races.
If there is satisfaction to be found, right now it’s in denying the playoff hopefuls what they wanted, even if it was Chastain’s buddy William Byron, who finished second on Sunday.
“William is a guy that I want to see win,” Chastain said. “I want to see him succeed. He is one of the few guys that I can say I’m buddies with, and we are kind of aligned in life. Although we come from different back grounds, we kind of came to the central point, and we get along more than I get along with most people.
“Would I have loved to see the 24 drive into victory lane and lock himself into the round of 8? Sure. But not enough to pass the 1 car because I’m driving it.”
It was the same thing at Phoenix last fall when he respected the Championship Four and their battle but not enough to let them by either.
“So, yeah, spoiler, yes, but when I’m watching, and I’m seeing my Chevy teammates, the people that I work with during the week,” Chastain said. “We do DIL simulations, like our simulator sessions in the simulators together with HMS, with RCR, and Trackhouse. I want them to succeed. I want the 99 to succeed. I wish the 99 — I wish that Daniel was the one winning, but not at the expense of the 1 car and not at the expense of me.
“At the end of the day would I truly give up the win? I would not. I don’t care. It could lock them into anything. If I have a chance to win, I’m going to win.
“Daniel and I worked closer together this week than we probably ever have, and there’s a lot to digest from what happened today and this weekend. There’s points in the weekend where I thought the 99 was better. There’s points where I thought the 1 was better. Ultimately, we had the track position at the end to go win.”
And by the way, what was that snack?
“It was a Clif Bar,” Chastain said with a chuckle. “I go with the OG peanut butter Clif Bar. It’s the only thing that I found that doesn’t melt.
“So the problem with race cars is that anything with chocolate or anything else melts, but the Clif Bars just get warm, but they don’t melt. When you open the package, you can still break off — it’s like really doughy and soft, but it’s like it just came out of the oven.
“I didn’t open it today. I didn’t have any.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.