There’s no better place for Ross Chastain to be this weekend than another racetrack. The AdventHealth driver will climb behind the wheel of the No. 1 Chevrolet Camaro at the newly reconfigured Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Ga.
Chastain came up one position shy of earning his first Cup Series victory last weekend at Phoenix Raceway in Avondale, Ariz.
The second-place finish came on the heels of leading 83 laps two weekends ago at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and contending for the win before finishing third at the mile-and-a-half track.
Chastain wasn’t the only Trackhouse driver with a stellar finish last weekend at Phoenix. His teammate Daniel Suárez also finished in the top-10, making it the first time since the team’s inception both cars have finished in the top-10.
Last Sunday marked the third consecutive race a Trackhouse Chevrolet has been in contention for a win. Teammate Suárez challenged for the win three weeks ago at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California.
On Friday morning before heading to the track, Chastain will visit with the employees at AdventHealth’s Rome, Georgia facility for an appreciation and team building event.
In January, Chastain participated in a Goodyear Tire test at Atlanta in preparation for this weekend’s event after the mile-and-a-half venue underwent a repave.
Sunday marks Chastain’s fifth Cup Series start at the intermediate track. The Alva, Florida, native has a best Cup finish of 14th earned in the spring of 2021. In the Xfinity Series, Chastain has six starts with a best finish of seventh. Chastain will have a busy weekend at Atlanta because in addition to the Cup Series race, he’s also driving the No. 41 Chevrolet for Niece Motorsports and making his sixth Truck Series start at the intermediate track.
Fox will broadcast Sunday’s 500-mile race at 3 p.m. ET.
Ross Chastain, Driver of the No. 1 Advent Health Chevrolet Camaro
What do you know about the new and improved 28 degrees of banking at Atlanta?
“I was part of the Goodyear tire test. It’s like a superspeedway, it really is. The transitions are a little sharper than Daytona and Talladega, but its smooth enough and has enough grip to that we’ll be okay. It’s Daytona minus a mile, they’re probably going to have to enforce a double yellow line. We will be entering the corners on the apron and re-merging like we saw back before the yellow double line at superspeedways.”
When you say Atlanta is kind of like the third superspeedway now, what do you mean by that?
“It’s pretty crazy. It’s odd to see it in person because I know what Atlanta looks like in my brain. When I went out onto the track and it is narrower, and the apron is very wide, and they moved the frontstretch down by about 20 feet so you can short cut it on the flat. They’re probably going to have to do some sort of double yellow line rule if the same problems arise of the guys trying to re-merge and then crashing in the corners like at Talladega and Daytona.
Most of your superspeedway wrecks are at the end of the straightaway, down the back or down the front into turn 1 or turn 3. Big energy comes from eighth place up through the pack and someone towards the front gets turned. If you make it through, you have a chance to win. If there’s not a double yellow line, I think we will crash in the corners. I was able to tandem with three cars, back up to the guy behind me, the energy would push us up to the leader and stay on him for half of a lap. Now if I have more energy pushing me, I think I could stay on him longer. It’s Daytona minus a mile, but you do have to turn the wheel in the corner. Daytona you don’t turn the wheel, you just hold it. The frontstretch is flat at Atlanta, Daytona and Talladega have a little bit embankment.”
