Ross Chastain Powers to Second Career NASCAR Cup Pole; Truex to Start 2nd
Ross Chastain may not be a Playoff driver this season, but the driver of the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 isn't letting that dampen his on-track performance. At Watkins Glen International on Saturday afternoon, Chastain secured his second career NASCAR Cup Series pole, and it comes in what will be his 215th career start.
RELATED: NASCAR Cup Series Go Bowling at The Glen Starting Lineup
Chastain busted out a 72.130-second lap (122.279 mph) in the final round qualifying session for Sunday's Go Bowling at The Glen. That lap time was good enough, by nearly a tenth-and-a-half-of-a-second, for the Busch Light driver to take home the Busch Pole Qualifying Award.
The 31-year-old racer was emotional about the pole-winning run, as it was the culmination of a lot of hard work, personally, to improve on road courses.
"Just turning right seems so simple, but gosh it's just been such a challenge for me," Ross Chastain admitted following the session. "I went to the Skip Barber Driving School to learn how to turn right, I've leaned on Josh Wise and Scott Speed, so much. The instructors at Skip Barber. Chevrolet has taken us out to Spring Mountain and done schooling with Ron Fellows and instructors there. It wasn't any one thing. It was so many years of trying to learn how to do this.
"And for our Busch Light Chevy, this is just a career moment. Lifetime achievement to go faster than everybody in the Cup Series. It's just unbelievable for Trackhouse and myself."
The only other time the Flordia native notched a pole in the NASCAR Cup Series was at Nashville Superspeedway last season, a race that Chastain would go on to win. If he could pull that feat off again this weekend, I think victory lane would be an extremely emotional place on Sunday afternoon.
Martin Truex Jr. will lineup alongside Chastain from the outside of the front row as the field charges toward the green flag in Sunday's race. Truex, who comes into the weekend 19 points below the Playoff cutline, was the highest-qualified Playoff driver in the field.
The good qualifying run comes at a great time for Truex, as he started the Playoffs off with a 35th-place run at Atlanta Motor Speedway, a week after narrowly making it into the Playoffs at Darlington following a Lap 2 crash, which resulted in a 36th-place finish. Truex needs momentum in a hurry as it has been 15 races since he last registered a top-five finish in NASCAR Cup Series competition.
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver will look to turn things around this weekend.
Shane van Gisbergen will start from the third position in the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, and he'll be followed by two Playoff drivers as Alex Bowman and Austin Cindric nailed down the fourth and fifth starting spots in the Go Bowling at The Glen.
AJ Allmendinger, Joey Logano, Daniel Suarez, Noah Gragson, and Michael McDowell rounded out the top-10 drivers in the starting lineup for Sunday's race.
Like last weekend, it'll be a mixed bag for the 16 NASCAR Cup Series Playoff contenders. While five Playoff drivers found themselves inside the top-10 of the starting lineup, five others will start from 20th-position-or-worse.
Here is a breakdown of where all of the Playoff drivers will start on Sunday at Watkins Glen:
Pos | No. | Driver |
|---|---|---|
2 | 19 | Martin Truex Jr. |
4 | 48 | Alex Bowman |
5 | 2 | Austin Cindric |
7 | 22 | Joey Logano |
8 | 99 | Daniel Suarez |
11 | 24 | William Byron |
12 | 14 | Chase Briscoe |
14 | 9 | Chase Elliott |
15 | 54 | Ty Gibbs |
16 | 45 | Tyler Reddick |
17 | 20 | Christopher Bell |
20 | 5 | Kyle Larson |
22 | 11 | Denny Hamlin |
28 | 6 | Brad Keselowski |
30 | 12 | Ryan Blaney |
33 | 21 | Harrison Burton |
TOBY CHRISTIE