Ross Chastain’s mantra this summer has been “no news is good news,” as his No. 1 Trackhouse Racing team is having a quiet stretch run toward the playoffs.
“We want to go contend for wins and lead laps and put ourselves up there and race at the front, but there’s no panic,” Chastain said ahead of the Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway. “It’s just (going) about our business … We’re always making small tweaks internally and give those some time to see the fruits of our labor.”
In the last nine races, which dates back to Darlington when there was the high-profile crash between he and Larson, Chastain has earned two top-10 finishes. One of those, however, was his first victory of the season at Nashville Superspeedway to clinch a return trip to the postseason.
Chastain has finished 20th or worse in three of the last four NASCAR Cup Series races. In the last two months, Chastain has slid from the championship points lead after the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway to fifth place.
“We always want to run good, but we know we have the potential so as long as we keep bringing fast cars and keep nailing the balance, getting it close,” Chastain said. “I think that’s what we’ve been off on lately is the balance. We’ve slid the fronts too much and we’ve slid the rears too much.
“It’s not a fundamental issue, it’s just small tweaks. So, we’re looking for those last little bits and (to) get that on a more consistent basis and we’ll be OK. There are no fire alarms at Trackhouse.”
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Sunday in Richmond, Chastain starts 19th on the grid. Chastain finished third at the Virginia short track in the spring.
There are five races remaining in the regular season, including the Richmond event. Chastain is sitting on 10 playoff points with William Byron leading the series at 22 with the regular season winding down.
“I liked it better when we were parked at the front of the garage, for sure,” Chastain said of his team in the pecking order as the playoffs approach. “We want to just try to scrape up as many points. You can look back at races and see where we lost points and here’s a good example. We lost a stage win just because I didn’t get a good restart and lost the lead, and ran third in the first stage.
“That would have been really nice to have that extra point, and it was as simple as a restart, spinning my tires, and it’s one point gone and two regular-season points gone. So, there’s always those little things that eat at me, and we’re just trying to minimize those losses and gain as many as we can.”