2022 Trackhouse Racing Talladega Race Report

  • Trackhouse Racing driver Ross Chastain finished first and teammate Daniel Suárez 31st in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.
  • Suárez started fourth and led 28 of the race’s first 35 laps before dropping to midpack after the first round of pitstops.
  • Chastain returned to the lead lap at the end of the first stage after he was assessed a pitlane speeding penalty early in the race.
  • Both drivers climbed back into contention in the second stage with Chastain finishing ninth and earning two bonus points.
  • Suárez saw his day end after he was collected by spinning cars in a nine-car accident on lap 90. Despite attempts by the crew, the No. 99 could not be repaired.
  • Chastain started the final stage in 13th and moved to second-place with 10 laps to go.
  • As the laps wound down, the tension increased and he took the white flag in third place behind Kyle Larson and Erik Jones.
  • On the final lap, Larson pulled out of line to the outside, poised to make a pass for the lead. But Jones pulled in front of Larson to block the momentum while Chastain kept his No. 1 Moose Fraternity Chevrolet steady below them maintaining pace, ultimately pulling away to the win as the other two cars lost momentum battling each other.
  • Chastain led one lap – the last lap.
  • It marked the second victory for Chastain and Trackhouse Racing in 2022. His last victory came at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas (COTA) on March 27.
  • Chastain drove the same chassis to victory in COTA and Talladega.
  • The NASCAR Cup Series returns to action Sunday at Dover (Del.) Speedway.
 

Talk us through the crazy last lap. You stayed on the bottom. Things just opened up for you?

“Holy cow. I’m always the one going to the top too early, making the mistake. There at the end it was like eight to go, I was like, I’m not going up there again. I did that a couple times today. I was like, I’ll just ride on the bottom. If it works, I’m not going to lose the race for us, I’ll just let them. This Moose Fraternity Chevrolet, almost a million Moose members across the world, in the country, I know there’s some out here at Talladega, to win with the Moose onboard, they’ve been with me for a few years now, supported me everywhere I went. I have no idea. They kept going up, kept moving out of the way.”

You come to Trackhouse Racing this season. Could you ever imagine this amount of success this early on in your tenure here?

“No. Are you kidding me? You know me. I’ve wrecked myself so many times and gotten into it with guys. Justin Marks and what he laid out for us was ambitious. I had no idea, you know, what to expect other than I knew I had my group from last year, I had AdventHealth, the Moose, now with Worldwide Express and Jockey coming onboard, we’ve got partners. They’re believing in us. We started the year with a lot of races open. We’re almost full now. It’s because of the vision of Justin Marks. Pitbull, Armando, we won, yeah!”

— Ross Chastain

 

 

 

 

“Our Camaro was fast. I was really happy with how the car was driving. I wasn’t good in traffic. I felt like we needed to make an adjustment or two. We made an adjustment and the car was much better by the end of the run. We just needed a little track position.  

I felt like we were being patient, just trying to wait for the right time to try and get aggressive and get in the right position. I don’t even know what happened. I just saw the No. 22 (Joey Logano) sideways, wrecking, in the top lane. Unfortunately, we were just in a bad position.”

  — Daniel Suárez

Trackhouse Racing PR