2022 Ross Chastain Trackhouse Racing Daytona Advance

Chastain would love to notch another win this season to further pad his points standing in the playoffs which begin next weekend at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway.

A lot has changed since Chastain first climbed behind the wheel of the No. 1 Chevrolet at Daytona in February.

The 29-year-old entered the season with a new car number, a team under new ownership which included a name change. In the months since, Chastain has captured two wins, Circuit of the Americas (COTA) road course in Austin, Texas on March 27, his first win in Trackhouse Racing history, and his second Cup Series win at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway on April 24.

Daytona’s superspeedway racing always makes for thrilling racing with drivers constantly jockeying for position while driving at a high rate of speed. Chastain has eight Cup Series starts at Daytona since 2018, with a best finish of eighth last year. An accident just over a quarter of the way into the February event, left the No. 1 driver with a 40th-place finish at the 2.5-mile superspeedway.

Chastain went to Daytona several times as a kid and perused the campgrounds on his bicycle with family and friends. The historic track is located just under four hours Northeast from the Chastain family home in Southwest Florida.

In 25 Cup Series starts this season, Chastain has 10 top-fives, 14 top-10s and 583 laps led.

NBC will broadcast Saturday’s Cup race at 7 p.m. ET.

Ross Chastain, Driver of the No. 1 Jockey Chevrolet

Has it hit you yet that you’re going to be running for a Cup Series championship?

“Honestly, no. I know we are preparing to win races and have been working really hard all season. Its the Cup Series, and its wild to me that we’re going for a championship. When I look back to the races I was running in the Truck Series in 2012, and I was starting and parking, it’s wild to think that as recently as 2018 I was still doing some start and parks – the truck race at St. Louis. It humbling to think just a few years ago I was doing that just to get to the track.”

When you’re doing autograph sessions and you see a big crowd, do you look out and think ‘wow, this really did happen?’

“I just laugh. I can’t believe anyone would want to come listen to me, or get an autograph. I just laugh.”

How does it feel to have someone come up to you and say they want to get involved in racing because of you?

“It feels good. I got into racing because Matt Martin, Mark Martin’s son, would race at my local track and that is who I wanted to be like. There’s avenues across the country at local tracks that kids can get into go karts, flat karts, champ karts, shifter karts, and then once you get above 10 years old now, there’s full size cars that you can race against other kids. Its something that kept me out of trouble. Even if I never raced in NASCAR, from 12-18 it gave me that passion that I didn’t find in soccer. It gave me the desire to come home and work on my racecar with my dad and grand dad, and friends and family.”