By David Morgan, Associate Editor
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Florida’s native son will have the best seat in the house when the green flag flies on Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway.
Ross Chastain, who hails from a watermelon farming family in Alva, Florida, some four hours south of the World Center of Racing, rocketed to pole on Friday evening with a lap of 48.808 seconds to put his No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet at the top of the board.
It is the third pole of his NASCAR Cup Series career, but his first at Daytona, where he still seeks a victory. In 16 starts on the 2.5-mile superspeedway, Chastain has banked three top-10 finishes, with his best result of seventh coming in the 2021 Daytona 500.
“Life achievement,” said Chastain.
“I was a kid sitting in the grandstands. We camped outside of Turn 1, Gate 40. And for those that remember back in, I don’t know, late ’90s, 2000s, early 2000s, it was not the nice beautiful Gate 40 with dry grass that you see now. It was mud pit. And yeah, we camped over there, rode our bikes around and had other families that were family and some that were more than family. They were such close friends and my buddies that I grew up with.
“So yeah, I mean from the race pools, getting the race day paper and drawing names that they would cut up and hoping you got the pole sitter, that was a big deal. And as I got older, I realized how little or just less it means as far as how the car is actually going to draft. But still, it’s a big deal.
“This is a life achievement that I’ll never forget. This is a moment I’ll never forget.”
The Melon Man was putting in work! 💪 pic.twitter.com/jGEsJLGWFj
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) August 28, 2026
Chastain will be joined on the front row by RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher, followed by Austin Hill, Ryan Preece, Riley Herbet, Shane van Gisbergen, Connor Zilisch, Austin Cindric, Joey Logano, and Kyle Larson to round out the top-10 starters.
“That’s a heck of a start with this Fifth Third Ford Mustang Dark Horse,” said Buescher. “That’s cool to start on the front row. I thought the 60 [Preece] was gonna get us there after the first round, but the guys did a good job.
“We got it cooled off pretty well and were able to get that full lap in all the way to the checkers. It’s gonna be a great pit stall selection, just what we need to start this race and run up front and do our best to control it.”
All three of the Trackhouse Racing cars, including Chastain will be among the top-10 starters, which he explained was a nice change of pace given the season the team as a whole has had with Chastain out of the picture to make the Chase.
“It’s great with the season we’ve had, even over the second half of last year to hear them be confident,” Chastain said of the confidence among team engineers coming to Daytona with the new aero package.
“I could tell they were sincere in what they were saying and then translate it to on track. I mean, that’s what we’re looking for and that’s what we’ve been looking for at Trackhouse. It’s a really good feeling.”
Cindric, van Gisbergen, and Preece are three of the drivers still in the hunt for the final spots in the Chase, with Cindric entering Saturday night at +44, van Gisbergen at +31, and Preece the first driver on the outside looking in at -31 points.
“When there’s an opportunity of two cars in front of me, I think everybody in the field knows that I’ll push the 97 (van Gisbergen),” said Chastain of helping his teammate on Saturday night.
“I am OEM loyal and specifically 97 loyal. So, when there’s opportunity, any momentum I have, any push I have will go to the 97 and the crew chiefs will be talking. There’s little differences and if we find something air pressure wise or something, the 97 will be the first to know.”
Saturday night’s regular season finale is scheduled for 7:30 pm ET on NBC.
Be the first to comment