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How Chastain and Trackhouse turned nothing into everything at Charlotte

The plan was to fix the primary car.

By far the fastest in practice, Ross Chastain completed 20 laps at Charlotte Motor Speedway when the left rear tire went down. Chastain couldn’t save his Chevrolet, and it spun and hit the wall, driver’s side, in Turn 3. Once the machine was back in the garage, crew chief Phil Surgen and the team began their analysis on what was bent, broken and needed and to be replaced.

But approximately an hour to an hour and a half into that venture, the plan changed.

“As we started pulling parts off, it just became more evident that there was a section of the rear frame that was bent probably beyond repair,” Surgen said. “Then at that moment, it became a necessity to get to a backup car… Although it took a long time to identify, by the time we got all the parts and the car disassembled to the point where we could fully see all the damage, it was evident that we needed to go to a backup car.”

Chastain did not make a qualifying run because of the crash. His official listed starting position was 40th, last, for the Coca-Cola 600.

“When we wrecked this car on Saturday, I was sitting there at the car in the garage, and they were pulling parts off it, and Ross left the infield care center and walked up to the car and he had a huge smile on his face,” Justin Marks said. “He was like, ‘I know this sucks, but that’s what I’m talking about. Bringing cars to the racetrack like that. That’s what I’m talking about.’ He was just super pumped.”

Trackhouse originally planned to fix Chastain’s primary car after his Friday crash – until they saw the full extent of the damage. Logan Riely/Getty Images

Trackhouse Racing went back to its shop located 5.3 miles from the racetrack and worked until 2:30 a.m. on the backup car. Surgen said there were about 30 team members who came in to work. Some left events they were at, such as concerts and ball games, to show up.

Chastain arrived after finishing his appearance in the radio booth for the Xfinity Series race (where he was when he learned the team was going to a backup car), and stayed until about 10 p.m. when he was sent home under orders of competition director Tony Lunders to get some sleep. The first group of team members to arrive back at the shop did so at 5:30 a.m. ET. 

Once completed, the No. 1 Chevrolet arrived back at the speedway for inspection. The garage opened at 2 p.m. ET. The green flag for NASCAR’s longest race flew at approximately 6:30 p.m. ET.

And in the end, just before 11 p.m. ET., it was Chastain, Surgen – who had about two and a half hours of sleep – and the No. 1 team in victory lane. The first win for Chastain in a crown jewel event, and puts he and the team back in the postseason for the first time since 2023.

“With the Next car and with any race car the baseline that we established in practice, we take meticulous notes and measurements on every part and piece of that car in order to be able to replicate it,” Surgen said of making the backup car as good as the primary car was before the crash. “We have meticulous notes that we can take from this car today and apply to Nashville or to Michigan. So, that knowledge of what we had on the track on Saturday, what that setup was, what that configuration was and knowing that that was fast and competitive, and the conditions on Saturday, we took all that knowledge and applied it to Sunday.

 

“We made some small adjustments for weather conditions, longer runners, and were able to put it together pretty well.”

Chastain became the first driver since Bobby Allison (Richmond Fairgrounds, 1969) to win from an official starting position of last.