The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Chastain drives right into title contention
TALLADEGA, Ala. — He stood atop the winning Chevrolet at Talladega Superspeedway ready to celebrate in his own signature way. But when Ross Chastain smashed a monthold watermelon onto the track, the crowd roared as if it were an Earnhardt who had just snatched a thrilling last-lap victory.
It was “unlike anything I’ve ever experienced,” said the eighth-generation watermelon farmer from Florida.
“I want it to smash; I don’t want it to just bust open,” Chastain said. “I heard (the cheers) and I felt them. The car was shaking. Then my legs started shaking. My arms were shaking. I took a second, scanned left to right, so like from the start/finish line was in my peripheral, I scanned down to the tri-oval, people were going crazy. It was wild. Smashed it and they erupted again.
“It’s indescribable. I don’t have the words, but just the feeling they pumped into me was what you dream of. That’s what I wanted to do when I first wanted to show watermelons, if I was ever able to win a race, I wanted that feeling. I wanted that reaction.”
Rewind to 2018 and Chastain was just another struggling racecar driver desperate for a big team to give him a chance. He drove a motorhome for Spire Motorsports to the track most weeks to earn extra cash; the top drivers fly to the races, where their luxury home at the track is waiting and stocked with groceries. Chastain needed a side hustle.
The CEO of DC Solar took notice of Chastain at the track one day washing the Spire motorhome and decided to back him with company money in an Xfinity Series ride for Chip Ganassi Racing in 2019. Little more than a month later, the FBI accused DC Solar of being a Ponzi scheme and the deal collapsed.
Ganassi closed the Xfinity Series team, Chastain was back at square one and the DC Solar CEO was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
The next few seasons were a roller-coaster for Chastain, who desperately wanted to prove he deserved a top Cup ride. He made mistakes, wrecked with teammates and won just one Xfinity race after the Ganassi deal fell apart.
Then Ganassi called again ahead of the 2021 season to fill Kyle Larson’s seat. And that was going pretty good up until Ganassi shocked the industry by selling his entire NASCAR organization to Justin Marks last June.
Now the driver was again panicked — even a little nauseous — at starting all over again.
Marks, who along with partner Pitbull has built Trackhouse Racing into a winning team in just its second season, assured Chastain that things would be fine. He signed him to drive with essentially his entire Ganassi team from last year and told him to relax.
The result is two wins in the past five races, a guaranteed spot for Chastain and Trackhouse in the playoffs and two gloriously smashed watermelons. The first one he smashed on the road course at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas a month ago.