By Luis Torres, Staff Writer/Photographer
From the back to the front, Ross Chastain made it count when it mattered most as a late-race pass on the dominant William Byron resulted in the Trackhouse Racing driver to win the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday night.
The Floridian’s triumphant win marked his first Cup victory since the fall race at Kansas Speedway and did so by leading only eight of 400 laps.
As usual, a victory meant the watermelon smash made its return after conquering NASCAR’s longest race on the calendar.
After the trademark moment, Chastain grabbed a piece of the watermelon and had a bite as he was soaking in the win that looked doubtful Saturday after crashing into the Turn 3 wall during practice, resulting Chastain to roll off 40th in the 400-lap race.
Chastain explained that his No. 1 Trackhouse Racing squad worked on the car all night and into the morning, requiring people to make the 45-minute drive to the shop to assure a capable car to win.
“That’s the dedication it takes from Trackhouse. There was people there that had their Saturdays off and they came in,” said Chastain before pulling out a picture of US Army Specialist Kevin McCrea, whose name was on the windshield of his Jockey Chevrolet.
“He was riding with me. His family is here and that’s what this weekend is all about. Think about and remember the ones who’ve sacrificed so much for us.
“The McCrea family told me to be a sponge. That was something their dad told them a lot. I didn’t feel like much of a sponge tonight. I was rattling around out there.
“To drive on that final run in the World 600 and pass two cars that were way better all night…Holy cow! We just won the World 600!”
That moment began unfolding in the final 20 laps as Chastain made his presence known on Byron’s top spot. Chastain cutting down the gap on Byron, who had won the opening three stages and led a race-high 283 laps.
Lap traffic played a key role into Byron’s all-but assured victory falling by the wayside as he was racing the bottom, but Joey Logano began hogging up Byron’s lane for multiple laps which made Byron’s night suddenly difficult.
The saga allowed Chastain to further cut down the gap and once Denny Hamlin, who pitted for fuel after leading 38 laps, entered into the picture, it was checkmate for Chastain with six laps remaining.
Entering Turn 1, Chastain slid his way up to the top lane and successfully passed Byron for the lead and began putting a deficit on the once-dominant No. 24 Chevrolet.
Now on offense, Byron did everything he could to cut the gap on Chastain, but the car got tight and had to settle for a second-place finish, a disappointing result in his book.
“I’m frustrated that I’ve lost the race,” said Byron. “I really don’t have any other words for it, but I wished we won.
“(Ross) was catching me, and I was trying to defend. I felt like I put some good defensive moves, but I got really loose (in Turns 3-4) and that was really it. He had a huge run down the frontstretch and tried to protect against that, but it was too much.”
Rounding out the top-five are Chase Briscoe, who continued his night after being involved in a multi-car crash on Lap 245, and season best results for AJ Allmendinger and Brad Keselowski.
Kyle Larson finished 37th after being collected in the same multi-car crash Briscoe was in Turn 4.
The Cup Series will head to Nashville Superspeedway for the running of the Cracker Barrel 400. Coverage begins Sunday 7:00 p.m. ET on Amazon Prime.
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