Ross Chastain Trackhouse Racing Las Vegas Advance

A new week, a new feeling for Ross Chastain who will climb behind the wheel of the No. 1 WWEX Racing GlobalTranz Chevrolet at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend.

In only his third fulltime Cup Series season, the Alva, Florida native is leading the NASCAR Cup Series standings marking the first time Trackhouse Racing has a driver atop the point standings.

It’s been a team effort in 2023 at Trackhouse. Chastain’s teammate Daniel Suárez is fifth, just 15 points behind Chastain.

Obviously, Chastain’s season is off to a stellar start leading 97 laps and posting two top-10 finishes in the two points races. He also scored a top-10 finish Feb. 5 at the LA Clash exhibition race.

The No. 1 Chevrolet has won three of the four stages in 2024. Each stage victory means an extra point for Chastain when the playoffs start in September.

The success should continue this weekend on the 1.5-mile Las Vegas track.

In the two Cup Series races last year at Las Vegas, Chastain scored a runner-up and third-place finish. He led a combined 151 laps at the mile-and-a-half oval.

This weekend, Chastain’s No. 1 Chevrolet will have a different look with GlobalTranz on the car. The GlobalTranz brand, as part of the WWEX family of brands, focuses on freight and managed transportation solutions for some of the nation’s largest companies.

The GlobalTranz livery in Las Vegas coincides with GTZCON 2023, the annual GlobalTranz conference that brings together the brand’s top independent freight agents and stakeholders.

Chastain has a personal connection with GlobalTranz. The WWEX brand helps ship the Chastain family’s watermelons through Melon 1.

In addition to running the Cup Series race at Las Vegas, Chastain will also drive the No. 41 Worldwide Express Chevrolet in the Craftsman Truck Series for Niece Motorsports on Friday evening.

Fox will broadcast Sunday’s 400-mile race at 3:30 p.m. EST.

2023 Standings

Ross Chastain, Driver of the No. 1 GlobalTranz Chevrolet

What does it feel like to be the points leader for the first time in your career?

“Well, I’m certainly not used to it (laughs). It feels good to me but I think it also tells the story of a bigger picture with Trackhouse being fairly young and all the people there working together to help us get to this point. I certainly didn’t get here on my own. Everyone is pulling in the same direction and it’s showing. I don’t want to get ahead of myself though. This is a long season and there are so many variables, so we’ll just keep doing what we are doing and we’ll see how the season shakes out.”

You guys had a good result at Daytona which is kind of a wild card, but you also ran well right out of the box at Auto Club; what does that say to you?

“Daytona is such a wild card when it comes to finishes, so it is kind of hard to compare that style of race to the rest of the season. Yeah, running well at Auto Club without any practice on a more normal style of track was good. These men and women spend so many hours working on setups and things like that. You do wonder when you get to our intermediate tracks how things are going to shake out. Obviously, Auto Club was a great start, but we’ll keep focused each week on the task at hand and hopefully the trend will continue.”

Why do you still try and run as many races as you can each weekend?

“I’m a pretty firm believer that all laps are good laps so anytime I have the opportunity to hop in something besides the Cup car, I’m usually game. If me being in the truck this weekend helps Niece [Motorsports] on the competition side a little bit too, I’ll all for it. Worldwide Express is a great partner and they’re supportive of me in the truck as well as the Cup car, so it makes it fun to go out there and turn as many laps as I can.”

Chastain Notes

• 2023 marks Chastain’s third full-time Cup Series season. The Chevrolet driver’s first Cup Series start occurred in 2017.
• In 2022, Chastain won his first career Cup Series race at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas on March 27 and his second at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway on April 24.
• The Chevrolet driver finished second in the season ending championship standings.
• Voted 2022 National Motorsports Press Association’s Driver of the Year.
• Known for the “Hail Melon” move at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway that has garnered over 225 million views and 1.2B impressions.
• Moose car from Martinsville topped all diecasts in sales for 2022.
• Chastain owns 197 Xfinity Series starts with two wins (Las Vegas in Sept. 2018, and Daytona in July 2019), 23 top-five and 49 top-10 finishes. 
• The Florida native has 100 Craftsman Truck Series starts with four wins, three earned in 2019, and one in 2022 at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway, 19 top-five and 44 top-10 finishes. 
• Chastain joined Trackhouse Racing for the 2022 season after Chip Ganassi Racing was acquired last off season by Justin Marks.
• Chastain has driven for Premium Motorsports, Spire Motorsports and Roush Fenway Racing in the Cup Series before his first full-time season in 2021.

Justin Marks, Founder and Owner of Trackhouse Racing

Marks Business Career

• Marks, 41, is the founder and team owner of Trackhouse Entertainment Group and Trackhouse Racing
• He is a co-manager of Marks Family Foundation, with several different philanthropic endeavors. The family, led by father Michael Marks, has been a highly successful private equity leader in the Silicon Valley for years.
• Before Trackhouse Racing, Marks opened the GoPro Motorplex (go kart) racing facility near Charlotte in late 2012. He entered race team ownership at lower levels, including a venture with late owner Harry Scott in NASCAR’s lower rungs, as well as a World of Outlaws team.
• Marks moved to Nashville, Tennessee in 2020 to set up the corporate headquarters for Trackhouse Racing.
• The team competed as a single car team with Daniel Suárez in 2021 with its cars housed at Richard Childress Racing in Welcome, North Carolina. 
• The Trackhouse team won the 2021 NASCAR Diversity Team Award for its diversity in the sport and reaching out to new audiences. 
• In June of 2021, Trackhouse announced the acquisition of Chip Ganassi Racing’s NASCAR assets, a move that secured two full-time NASCAR Cup Series entries and cleared the path for expansion.
• In its first season as a multicar team in 2022 working out of its Concord, North Carolina race shop, Suárez and Ross Chastain won three races in 2022. Chastain finished second and Suárez 10th in the standings – both are career bests.
• Marks won the 2022 National Motorsports Press Association’s (NMPA) Myers Brothers Award during the 2022 NASCAR Awards in Nashville. The award recognizes individuals and/or groups that have provided outstanding contributions to stock car racing.
• Marks won the 2022 “Byrnsie Award” from Fox. The award was established to celebrate an individual in the NASCAR Cup Series who showcases the same principles as the late Steve Byrnes embodied — preparation, teamwork and family within the garage area.
• He is an investor in the Music City (Nashville) Grand Prix Indycar race.
• Marks along with Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton, purchased the Championship Auto Racing Series (CARS) Tour in January. The professional Late Model and Late Model stock car grassroots series competes at local short tracks throughout the Southeast United States.
• Marks now splits time between the North Carolina race shop and his home near Nashville where he and wife Erin are raising two daughters.

Marks Racing Career

• Marks has been a driver for nearly 20 years enjoying sports car success, including factory rides with Porsche, Acura and BMW.
• Marks competed in six NASCAR Cup Series races with a best finish of 12th-place in the 2018 Daytona 500. He made 35 starts in the Xfinity Series posting a win, three top-five and seven top-10s.
• Marks won the Xfinity Series race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on Aug. 13, 2016 driving for Chip Ganassi Racing.
• Marks competed in 39 races in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series posting four top-10s and capturing two pole awards.
• Marks joined four co-drivers in winning the 2009 Rolex 24 in the GT division.