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Autosport
Autosport
Sport
Jim Utter

NASCAR Cup Nashville: Chastain ends year-long winless streak

Chastain, who came into the weekend stating he needed to “wreck less and win more”, claimed pole position and ended a more than year-long winless streak in Nashville.

With 70 of 300 laps remaining, Chastain ran down Denny Hamlin to take the lead then stayed out front through the final round of pitstops.

Martin Truex Jr closed up to Chastain’s rear bumper multiple times in the last 50 laps as the two navigated lapped traffic, but Chastain beat him to the chequered flag by 0.789 seconds to secure the win.

The win is the third of Chastain’s career and comes during a season in which he has performed well on the track but has been caught up in run-ins with other drivers.

Most notably, Chastain lost a chance of victory at May’s Darlington race when he crashed into Kyle Larson while leading, and he came in for criticism from Hendrick Motorsports executive Jeff Gordon and Larson’s team owner Rick Hendrick.

“I got to tell you, this is incredible,” Chastain said, after doing a burnout on the frontstretch and smashing a watermelon. “This is why every little kid out there anywhere in the world, when you get criticised, and you’re going to if you’re competitive, they will try to tear you down. You will start believing you can’t do it.

Race winner Ross Chastain, Trackhouse Racing, Chevrolet Camaro (Photo by: John Harrelson / NKP / Motorsport Images)

“You have to go to your people, trust in the process, read your books, trust the big man’s plan upstairs, just keep getting up and going to work. I got to tell you, a lot of self-reflection throughout all this.

“I had a group that believed in me and they didn’t let me get down. They bring rocket ships and I just try to point them to victory lane.”

After losing touch of the victory battle, Hamlin ended up third and ahead of Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott, as his team-mate Kyle Larson rounded out the top five.

William Byron took sixth in front of Christopher Bell and Erik Jones, as Kyle Busch and A.J. Allmendinger completed the top 10.

Truex Jr retains the overall points lead in the NASCAR Cup standings ahead of Byron and Chastain.

NASCAR Cup Nashville - race results (300 laps)

Cla Driver Manufacturer Gap Interval
1 United States Ross Chastain Chevrolet    
2 United States Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 0.789 0.789
3 United States Denny Hamlin Toyota 5.451 4.662
4 United States Chase Elliott Chevrolet 8.035 2.584
5 United States Kyle Larson Chevrolet 9.274 1.239
6 United States William Byron Chevrolet 10.269 0.995
7 United States Christopher Bell Toyota 11.870 1.601
8 United States Erik Jones Chevrolet 13.349 1.479
9 United States Kyle Busch Chevrolet 13.598 0.249
10 United States A.J. Allmendinger Chevrolet 13.622 0.024
11 United States Brad Keselowski Ford 16.789 3.167
12 Mexico Daniel Suarez Chevrolet 20.445 3.656
13 United States Austin Dillon Chevrolet 20.591 0.146
14 Ty Gibbs Toyota 21.258 0.667
15 United States Bubba Wallace Toyota 23.736 2.478
16 United States Ryan Preece Ford 26.250 2.514
17 United States Alex Bowman Chevrolet 28.732 2.482
18 United States Chris Buescher Ford 29.073 0.341
19 United States Joey Logano Ford 29.339 0.266
20 United States Corey Lajoie Chevrolet 29.936 0.597
21 United States Harrison Burton Ford 30.352 0.416
22 United States Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Chevrolet 1 Lap 1 Lap
23 United States Justin Haley Chevrolet 1 Lap 1.112
24 United States Kevin Harvick Ford 1 Lap 0.617
25 United States Aric Almirola Ford 1 Lap 4.060
26 United States Noah Gragson Chevrolet 1 Lap 0.178
27 United States Austin Cindric Ford 1 Lap 6.655
28 United States Michael McDowell Ford 1 Lap 10.279
29 United States J.J. Yeley Ford 2 Laps 1 Lap
30 United States Tyler Reddick Toyota 2 Laps 2.130
31 United States Chase Briscoe Ford 2 Laps 6.368
32 United States Ty Dillon Chevrolet 2 Laps 0.369
33 United States Brennan Poole Ford 3 Laps 1 Lap
34 United States Josh Bilicki Chevrolet 3 Laps 7.348
35 United States Todd Gilliland Ford 4 Laps 1 Lap
36 United States Ryan Blaney Ford 154 Laps 150 Laps

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