Last-Ditch Effort Not Enough for Chastain to Avoid Playoff Devastation

Despite one hell of a last-ditch effort, Ross Chastain was eliminated from the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs after Sunday's event at the Charlotte ROVAL | Casey Calhoun, Racing America

For Ross Chastain, the battle to advance into the semi-final round of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs were intense, and came down to the final lap of Sunday's Bank of America ROVAL 400 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL.

Chastain, driving the No. 1 Busch Light Chevrolet for Trackhouse Racing, spent the entirety of the 59-lap final stage looking to position himself to topple Joey Logano, a three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, on the way to the next round of the post-season.

As Logano was brought to pit road by crew chief Paul Wolfe, to be on offense against Chastain, the Trackhouse Racing driver was left on the racetrack to play defense for the final 23 laps, needing to be four spots ahead of the bright yellow No. 22 Ford Mustang to move on.

With much older tires, Chastain began to fade, but Logano also didn't make a ton of progress on newer tires (even losing some spots to the drivers around him who also decided to pit). When the white flag was displayed, though, the gap remained at just one point, with Denny Hamlin hounding the rear-bumper of the No. 1 Chevrolet.

Hamlin would successfully make the pass on Chastain with a brilliant inside move in Turn 7, leaving the Alva, Florida-native on his backfoot with less than half a lap remaining around the 2.28-mile purpose-built road course.

Desperate to get that position back, Chastain made a low-percentage move (like, a really low-percentage move) and tossed his Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet into Turn 17, getting into the back of Hamlin and spinning them both around. Not only did Chastain not end up with that position, but he lost several more, including one to his main post-season rival, Joey Logano.

RACE RESULTS: Bank of America ROVAL 400 at the Charlotte ROVAL

“[Just trying to] get to the No. 11 [Hamlin],” Chastain told reporters after the race. “They said I had to be in front of the No. 11. So, I did what I had to do to be in front of the No. 11.”

What is likely even more upsetting for Chastain, is that all of this drama could have been avoided, if not for a pair of mistakes on pit road over the course of Sunday's 109-lap contest.

At the end of the race's first stage, the 32-year-old driver was in a great position exiting the pits, but failed to make it off pit road properly; missing the 90-degree turn that blends back onto the racetrack. While Chastain fought to retain his position, NASCAR deemed that he did not maintain caution car speed, and was dropped back in the pack.

For the most part, the driver of the No. 1 was able to recover from that minor transgression at the beginning of the race, until a pit stop (which ended up being his final pit stop) with 23 laps remaining where Chastain sped on pit road – requiring a pass-through and a major loss of track position.

RELATED: NASCAR Cup Series Playoff Grid After the ROVAL

“I came off out of the pit stall and double-clicked up into third and just unforced errors. Just terrible,” Chastain said about the late-race speeding penalty.

Had it have not been for those two small mistakes on pit road, then Chastain, who made a trip to the Championship 4 with Trackhouse Racing in 2022, would likely be fighting to make his second appearance in the Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway. Instead, he’s on the sidelines.

Asked what he would do differently on Sunday, Chastain was candid about his blunders, saying: “I would restart the whole day. For Busch Light, Chevy, Trackhouse Racing, they expect so much more out of me, and the speed on pit road, I had to go back and went off the end of pit road and didn’t turn. I thought I had more room and was trying to get to the yellow line and just completely started the downfall there.”

“Justin [Marks] hired me to carry this No. 1 car and to drive it, and to be a leader, and I just completely unravelled our day. We definitely had the speed on the last lap, and missed Turn 7, and I slid the rear tires and let the No. 11 by. Yeah, not acceptable. I just completely – you know, just completely unacceptable.”

The devastation from Chastain, a six-time NASCAR Cup Series race-winner, isn’t an act or a display, but instead the true emotions elicited from a driver that has worked his whole career to have the opportunity to compete for wins at NASCAR’s top-level, and the highest level of American motorsports.

“It’s terrible to get to this level and not perform,” Chastain added. “When you watch and you learn and you study for half your life to get here and to fail is a terrible feeling, right now, and I will wake up tomorrow and go right back to work. That doesn’t make it any better for our partners and for all of my teammates who are really upset with me, right now.”

Chastain will have four more opportunities to put Trackhouse Racing back in Victory Lane this season, beginning this weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and continuing at Talladega, Martinsville, and Phoenix.