Ross Chastain Snaps 29-Race Winless Streak with Kansas Win
In what has turned out to be a character-building year, Ross Chastain was able to find victory lane for the first time this season in Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway. The win snapped a 29-race winless drought for the Alva, Florida native, who last won in the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season finale at Phoenix Raceway.
RELATED: Hollywood Casino 400 Race Results
RELATED: NASCAR Cup Series Playoff Standings After Kansas
After performing a celebratory burnout, which had a duration that rivaled the length of the 400-mile race on Sunday, Chastain admitted that at times throughout the frustrating 2024 season, he didn't feel like there was a chance that he and his No. 1 Trackhouse Racing team would reach victory lane again.
"Look, there have been times this year where we couldn't have disrupted the minnow pond outside of Darlington, let alone a cup race. It's hard. It's really tough," Chastain said of the racing in the NASCAR Cup Series. "To come and do this, there are times where I didn't think after practicing qualifying we had what it took. I thought we have been way stronger here in the past. It didn't feel great all day, but our Kubota Chevy, it was better as the rubber went down, and the adjustments were great."
While Chastain didn't feel that his No. 1 car was good enough to win the race early in Sunday's race, the No. 1 Kubota Tractor Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 came to life in the second half of the race. In all, Chastain led the race five times for a total of 52 laps. He took the lead for the first time on lap 177 of the 267-lap contest, and took the lead for the final time with a pass on Martin Truex Jr. with 21 laps to go.
Chastain would have to endure a late-race charge from NASCAR Cup Series Playoff contender William Byron, who slowly crept into the picture, but was unable to get close enough to mount a real challenge to Chastain down the stretch. Byron fired his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 deep into the turn heading into Turn 3 on the final lap, but it wasn't enough as he finished 0.388 seconds behind Chastain.
After climbing from his car, Byron knew he had a machine capable of winning the race, but he just lacked the track position to pull it off all race long.
Y"eah, just clean air," Byron said when asked what he needed to pass Chastain at the end of the race. "I feel like he got the restart he needed to, and I was in the second row just trying to clear those guys. Once I got clear of them, my balance was okay. Just a little bit tight, but just kind of inching up on him. I needed probably, you know, for it to be a longer run being in second."
While he was disappointed in finishing second, Byron vaulted to the top of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff Standings. But with next week's race being at Talladega, Byron knows a 34-point advantage over the cutline could be erased in an instant.
"Damn it, I wanted that one really bad.," Byron stated. "It just sucks, man. You're so close, and you know going to Talladega you know what that is. So just sucks, but proud of the effort."
Martin Truex Jr., who was eliminated from championship contention last week at Bristol Motor Speedway, had a solid day and finished it off with a third-place finish, his first top-five finish in his last 18 starts.
Ryan Blaney came home in fouth, and Ty Gibbs finished fifth.
In all, eight of the 12 NASCAR Cup Series Playoff contenders finished inside of the top-15, and four Playoff drivers suffered with finishes of 24th-or-worse.
Chase Briscoe, who impressed mightily in the Round of 16 to advance to the Round of 12 was never really a factor at Kansas Speedway. And in the end, he finished a subpar 24th.
A couple of heavy hitters (Tyler Reddick and Kyle Larson) finished in 25th and 26th. While it doesn't make the end result any better, Larson, who entered the day as the No. 1 seed in the Playoffs, had a cut tire on Lap 70 to blame for his troubles.
After suffering damage to his diffuser and dropping a lap early, Larson fought hard to get his lap back, and after his team made repairs, Larson was able to work his way inside of the top-20 in the final Stage of the race. Ultimately, he would fade to finish 26th.
And Austin Cindric was the Playoff contender with the most disastrous day of them all as he finished 34th after spinning following contact he made with Kyle Busch on Lap 157. Cindric would end the day four laps off the pace, and he now heads into Talladega Superspeedway as the final driver in the Playoff standings, 29 points below the cutline.
While not a Playoff driver, Busch suffered heartbreak of his own in Sunday's race as the driver still seeking his first win of the season had the lead late in the day, but it all came undone with 30 laps remaining. As he was attempting to lap Playoff contender Chase Briscoe, Busch was pinched into the outside wall on the exit of Turn 2.
Down the backstretch, Busch lost control of his car and spun out.
... and just like that, everything changes. pic.twitter.com/FY1stJx1Ah
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) September 29, 2024
He would go on to finish a disappointing 19th on a day where he could have extended his consecutive seasons with a win streak to 20 seasons. Despite the frustrating situation, Busch didn't shoulder blame onto Briscoe following the race.
"Just running 10/10's all the time trying to make up and make up speed," Busch said of the incident. "Covering [Chastain] trying to make sure I could stay ahead of him, and [Briscoe] turned down the hill in order to get clean air from the guy in front of him, and so I went to his outside and plugged the hole, and just air. Just some reason, felt nothing off the corner and hadn't really had that the whole time."
Busch continued, "Hate it for my guys and everybody at RCR and ECR, they deserved to get the win today."
Next up for the NASCAR Cup Series is the Yellawood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, which will host the second race of the three-race NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Round of 12. That race is scheduled for Sunday, October 6 and will be televised by NBC beginning at 2PM ET. The Motor Racing Network (MRN) and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will provide the radio call of that race.
Toby Christie is the Editor-in-Chief of Racing America. He has 15 years of experience as a motorsports journalist and has been with Racing America since 2023.