Ross Chastain (born December 4, 1992) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He currently competes full-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No. 4 Chevrolet Camaro for JD Motorsports, and part-time in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 15 for Premium Motorsports.
Video Ross Chastain
Early career
He grew up racing at Punta Gorda Speedway in Punta Gorda, Florida at the age of twelve, competing in both late model and Fastruck Series events, His short track career saw Chastain scoring over fifty wins in feature events, including the 2011 World Series of Asphalt at New Smyrna Speedway, winning three of eight events in the series.
Maps Ross Chastain
NASCAR
He made his debut in NASCAR national touring series competition in the Camping World Truck Series in 2011, driving the No. 66 Chevrolet for Turn One Racing at Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis, finishing 10th in his inaugural event. Chastain competed in four additional events in the 2011 season, with the 10th being his best finish, in preparation for a full season in the Camping World Truck Series in 2012, competing for Rookie of the Year honors with SS-Green Light Racing. Driving the No. 08 truck sponsored by the National Watermelon Association and National Watermelon Promotion Board, he scored a career-best finish of seventh in the second race of the season at Martinsville Speedway. He bested his 7th-place finish with a 3rd-place finish at Bristol in August.
In January 2013, it was announced that Chastain would drive in 15 Camping World Truck Series races in 2013 for Brad Keselowski Racing. At Iowa Speedway in September, Chastain won his first career Truck Series pole for the Fan Appreciation 200; he led the most laps in the race, finishing second to James Buescher as the race underwent a green-white-checkered finish. Chastain also came close to the win at the penultimate race at Phoenix, finishing second to Erik Jones after leading over 60 laps.
Leaving BKR after the 2013 season, Chastain moved to Ricky Benton Racing for a part-time schedule in 2014. In May, he announced he would make his debut in the Nationwide Series (now Xfinity Series) at Charlotte Motor Speedway, driving the No. 55 for Viva Motorsports. He then joined JD Motorsports in 2015 replacing, Jeffrey Earnhardt. He then finished his best finish of 9th in the season opener at Daytona.
2017
Chastain's 2017 Xfinity season was the best of his career, scoring a top five at Iowa and two top tens as well as finishing 13th in points, highest of the non-playoff drivers. He achieved this after a tight points battle with J.J. Yeley for the spot in the last four races of the season. In the second half of the season, Chastain rarely finished outside the top twenty and mainly finished in the mid-teens.
The season was marred by two fights with fellow Xfinity drivers, one with Jeremy Clements at Bristol after Clements confronted him and one with Brendan Gaughan at Texas after heated on-track competition. Chastain, Gaughan and crew members from both teams brawled behind Victory Lane at the conclusion of the night race. A crew member from JD Motorsports teammate Garrett Smithley was taken to the hospital with a head injury after the fight. Chastain blamed the confrontation on Gaughan, saying the Richard Childress Racing driver attacked him, but also acknowledged that he races hard and does not play favorites. Gaughan initially avoided discussing the incident with reporters but later boasted about the incident on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio and said that he received several text messages from fellow drivers who were happy about the incident. He did admit that he could've handled the situation later but didn't really care about it. That opinion was likely influenced by the fact that 2017 was Gaughan's final Xfinity season, as any retaliation would have to happen within the next two races.
In 2017, Chastain joined Premium Motorsports' No. 15 car for his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series debut in the AAA 400 Drive for Autism at Dover, an opportunity he initially resisted after being informed of the opportunity by Xfinity team owner Johnny Davis. he finished 20th. He also drove the No. 15 at the fall Dover race, finishing 38th. Chastain was originally on the entry list to drive the No. 7 car, the second car for Premium Motorsports, at the Cup series season finale at Homestead, but the team withdrew.
2018
In late September 2017, Chastain announced that he would return to JD Motorsports for a fourth year, running the entire 2018 NASCAR Xfinity Series season, as well as hinting at another part-time Cup schedule with Premium Motorsports. He started off the Xfinity season with a top-ten at Daytona International Speedway, and ran his first Cup race of 2018 the week after at Atlanta Motor Speedway. By the Easter off weekend, Chastain had expanded his Cup schedule, which had included every race since Atlanta, to all of the race weekends where the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series run at the same track.
Personal life
An Alva, Florida native, Chastain was a watermelon farmer on his family's farm until he turned thirteen. He is a graduate of Riverdale High School in Fort Myers. He attended Florida Gulf Coast University for a semester before he began racing in the Truck Series.
His grandfather Jim Prevatt, father Ralph, and younger brother Chad, have all also competed in auto racing competition.
Motorsports career results
NASCAR
(key) (Bold - Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics - Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * - Most laps led.)
Monster Energy Cup Series
Xfinity Series
Camping World Truck Series
* Season still in progress
1 not eligible for series points
References
External links
- Official website
- Ross Chastain driver statistics at Racing-Reference
Source of article : Wikipedia
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