2022 Ross Chastain Trackhouse Racing COTA Advance

In the last two races, Trackhouse Racing driver Ross Chastain has come so very close to claiming his first career NASCAR Cup Series victory.

Last week at Atlanta, the Alva, Florida native finished .145 seconds behind winner William Byron. The week before it was just .771 seconds that separated Chastain and winner Chase Briscoe.

The 29-year-old hopes he can close that small gap Sunday when the Cup Series makes its first road course appearance of the 2022 season at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas.

He is one of the favorites for Sunday’s 68-lap race on the 3.41-mile, 20-turn circuit. Last year, he started 20th and finished fourth in a race plagued by heavy rain.

Chastain will have momentum and confidence on his side.

He led 42 laps at Atlanta on Sunday before a cut tire sent him into the wall and dropped him two laps behind the leader. The No. 1 team led by Crew Chief Phil Surgen never gave up and returned to the lead lap, and then used a push by Trackhouse teammate Daniel Suárez on the final lap to finish second.

Chastain’s second-place finish and Suarez’s fourth-place finish marked the first time the second year team placed its two cars in the top five. It also marked the fourth consecutive race a Trackhouse Chevrolet has battled for the lead in the closing laps.

The Chevrolet driver has led 125 laps in 2022 – the fourth most – and moved to 10th in points despite a last-place finish at the season-opening Daytona 500.

Chastain’s No. 1 Chevrolet will carry the ONX Homes/iFLY Indoor Skydiving livery this weekend.

ONX Homes has over 10 communities and uses advanced offsite construction facilities to build sustainable, high-quality homes in half the time of on-site construction.

iFLY Indoor Skydiving currently has more than 80 locations world wide for people to experience the thrill of flying in one of their wind tunnels.

Both ONX Homes and iFLY Indoor Skydiving made appearances on Trackhouse Racing teammate Suárez’s Chevrolet last year.

Fox will broadcast Sunday’s race at 3:30 p.m. ET.

 

Ross Chastain, Driver of the No. 1 ONX/iFLY Chevrolet Camaro

Your road racing went up several notches last year, why is that?

“The road racing side didn’t happen over night. It was years of Xfinity Series racing, combined with Truck Series racing, our Spring Mountain School with Chevrolet and Ron Fellows. It has been a real effort of probably five years to get better at road racing. I never did any road racing growing up, ever. To come full circle and be competitive, and have a car with great brakes last year was awesome. There isn’t one thing that helped me. At times, it was only iRacing, and now it’s iRacing, Chevrolet simulators, Spring Mountain School, and Skip Barbour School.”

What do you remember about COTA last year?

“I’ve been to Austin quite a few times the last few years because Al Niece (owner of Niece Motorsports) lives there. It usually doesn’t rain much there, so I was amazed at how much it rained there last year.”

Trackhouse Racing PR