NASCAR Cup Series: Chastain goes from last to first for Charlotte 600 win

Gabriel Tsui
2 days ago
4 min read

Written by Gabriel Tsui

Ross Chastain of Trackhouse Racing completed an unfathomable comeback on Memorial Day for a win in Charlotte. This marks the first crown jewel win for the 32-year-old, as he secures a playoff berth after missing out in 2024.

Stage one kicked off with Chase Briscoe and Kyle Larson leading the field to green, but William Byron took the leaders three wide and cleared both of them out of turn 4. Soon, however, Larson caught back up with Byron and retook the lead, and built a huge gap ahead.

His run was short lived, as he spun off turn 4 in an unforced error, as the first caution of the race was presented. The rest of the stage saw little action, as an Alex Bowman spin caused the officials to bring out the caution, as Byron won stage one.

Stage One Results:

William Byron, No.24
Tyler Reddick, No.45
Christopher Bell, No.29
John Hunter Nemechek, No.42
AJ Allmendinger, No.16
Chris Buescher, No.17
Denny Hamlin, No.11
Noah Gragson, No.4
Chase Elliott, No.9
Michael McDowell, No.71

Stage two saw Byron lead and clear, but a huge crash behind him involving Jimmie Johnson and Connor Zilisch brought out the third caution of the day. Byron led the restart as Carson Hocevar continued his rise to fourth place, while Ryan Preece moved from 25th to 13th place.

Byron continued his dominance by leading the rest of the stage, at one point exerting an astonishing nine second lead over second place runner Denny Hamlin and third place Tyler Reddick.

Stage Two Results:

William Byron, No.24
Denny Hamlin, No.11
Tyler Reddick, No.45
Carson Hocevar, No.77
John Hunter Nemechek, No.42
AJ Allmendinger, No.16
Ross Chastain, No.1
Erik Jones, No.43
Noah Gragson, No.4
Chase Elliott, No.9

Denny Hamlin challenged for the lead early in stage three, but Byron’s No.24 stays side by side and cleared the No.11 by turn 4. As the race entered mid-stage three, the race was interrupted by a flurry of cautions, collecting drivers such as Ryan Blaney and the aforementioned Larson. On the restart, Byron zoomed away as Hamlin was left to fend against Hocevar, who was unrelenting in his attacks.

Byron completed his sweep of the stages comfortably, but lost the lead in transition to the final stage as Hamlin decided against taking extra fuel. Hamlin and Hocevar led the field to the green flag but a blown engine for Hocevar’s No.77 meant the day was done for the 22-year-old, a heartbreaking finish to what was a promising start.

Stage Three Results:

William Byron, No.24
Denny Hamlin, No.11
Carson Hocevar, No.77
Tyler Reddick, No.45
Ross Chastain, No.1
AJ Allmendinger, No.16
Christopher Bell, No.20
Chase Elliott, No.9
Chase Briscoe, No.19
Ryan Preece, No.60

Following the eighth caution of the race, it was back to Hamlin and Byron on the front row, as the Chevy Camaro proved too much for the Toyota Camry, as Byron cleared Hamlin by lap 315. In the meantime, Ross Chastain slowly moved past the top-five runners, and slowly but surely he found himself within striking distance of the top-two.

Chastain closed in on the No.11 as they found out the car is critical fuel, and the Trackhouse star completed the overtake with 25 laps to go. Chastain chased down the leader and stayed patient, until a charging lapped car gave Chastain an opening to go to the bottom lane.

If at the end of Friday, you told any NASCAR fan that Ross Chastain will win the Charlotte 600, most would tell you that would be impossible. Chastain had just crashed his car in Friday practice, forcing him to move to a backup car.

However, with a pinch of genius and a pacific ocean of luck combined, Chastain made the move stick, completing one of the most improbable comebacks in the history of NASCAR and secured a return to the championship.

As for Byron, despite sweeping the stages and leading north of 270 laps, he will be going home without a Charlotte 600 win. However, his consolation prize is retaking the championship lead from Larson with a 65 point weekend, and an opportunity to build on this positive result heading into Nashville.

Final Race Results: