NASCAR CUP SERIES BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTES SEPTEMBER 12, 2025 |
Ross Chastain, driver of the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet, met with the media in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series practice and qualifying session at Bristol Motor Speedway. | MEDIA RESOURCES: Photo Gallery | Race AdvancesChevrolet Newsroom |
| Media Availability Quotes: I know there’s a lot on the line tomorrow night in general, but the Bristol Night Race, what is the atmosphere of this event and competing in it as a driver?“Sunny, no clouds. Yeah, it’s incredible walking through the tunnel… it never gets old. For me, I equate it to driving through the tunnel at Daytona and driving down to Darlington. But here, it’s pulling up and seeing the stadium and then also walking through the turn three tunnel. It just never gets old. It’s so cool looking up at the banks and then the steepness of the grandstands. I went up and watched truck practice yesterday in the grandstands and then I was up in the Food City suite for the race. It’s just amazing. Just being here, even if there was no racing, it’s cool and you don’t get that everywhere.” You’re 19 points above the cutline. What does that do to add to the intensity of this weekend for you and the No. 1 team?“I think it puts us in a spot where we are fast enough to stay above the cutline, but a failure or an error, it’s easy to hit the wall here. They’ve painted them back to their old all-black. They’re waiting on you if you make a mistake, so we’ve got 500 laps to get through.” I wanted to ask you about your thoughts on racing at Bristol. You’ve had two of your career three top-10s in the last two races. Do you feel like you’re really figuring out? Do you like this kind of racing, this style of racing?“Yeah, I love it. I love the track. I love driving up here. I love driving on it, even when I’ve been slow and was really bummed. One of my early races here, I remember I think McDowell spun off of (turn) four and I was running last in the Premium Motorsports car. I piled into Truex and a couple of them. I was like, wait for me, I want to join the wreck. I remember I was so bummed, just because I wasn’t going to get to run a full night race here. I don’t know if it’s coming together or not, but Phil Surgen (crew chief) has been giving me good race cars here and we need that next step to put us really in contention to try to win. We’ve taken the step to get to the top-10 and we want to keep that going and take the next one.” You guys have did some behind-the-scenes competition changes not too long ago. Wondering if those are starting to bear fruit at all or is it still too soon?“I don’t know. I mean, I think that the idea and the direction Justin (Marks) wants to go; appointing Todd Meredith to be boots on the ground every day… wake up, be on the shop floor, upstairs or downstairs at Trackhouse. But to actually execute it… if Justin Marks believes in it, then we’re going that direction. So, we’re going to go that direction. Has it actually affected the cars? I wouldn’t know a right-front upper control arm if you sat it here on the table. So, I wouldn’t be able to tell. I look at them and I’m like — I mean, I could bolt it together. I could physically do it, but deciding where to bolt it, deciding what spring to put in the right-front, what shock clicks to put in the left-rear shock, what angle to run the diffuser… I don’t know that stuff. So, that’s for Todd to implement the right processes for then him to hire the right people to execute it. I don’t know. I really don’t. I stay in my swim lane when it comes to that stuff.” What’s your approach for tomorrow night, in terms of the balance versus being aggressive versus conservative? Because you guys are kind of in that sweet, mushy middle there where you’re smart and you can get through this, you’ll be okay, but you also have to be mindful of everybody else and what they’re potentially doing in terms of points… “Yeah. Well, we have to finish the race. We have to be rolling at the end, for sure. That’s every race if you want to do good. I don’t want to walk out of here with a sore shoulder (laughs). So, yeah, we have to finish and see. Today will set the tone for how fast we are, right? Long run in practice. How can we qualify? We have actually qualified last here in a Trackhouse car. I hope no other Trackhouse driver ever has to endure that because that was terrible. So, we’ll try to be better than that. Tomorrow, we’ll see where we start and that kind of sets the attitude for how we’re going to approach the start of the race at least.” From a competitor’s standpoint, when you come into a weekend where there’s unknowns about tires, all that stuff, do you prefer that or would you rather go into a weekend knowing, hey, it’s just a standard Bristol race?“I don’t think there’s been a standard Bristol race since they built the place. So, yeah, I think it’s always been like this. I think drivers always come in here nervous. I think they were more nervous back in the day because the safety of the cars wasn’t there. We’ve seen that they could literally knock the fence down. I mean, they would punch holes in the gates or whatever, the guardrail. We are in such a better spot. These really are the good old days at Bristol, from a safety perspective, I believe. It’s my opinion. I think drivers have been nervous walking into Bristol since they built it.” There was a little hubbub this week, not just about you and Shane van Gisbergen, but also some, I think, Chase Elliott and maybe Joey Logano, efforts post-race and then NASCAR making a ruling about those. Anything to say about how NASCAR has decided to enforce what drivers do post-race with the cars?“No, sir. NASCAR sets the rules. I just ask for the rule book, the schedule and let me go race.” |
NASCAR CUP SERIESBRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAYTEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTESSEPTEMBER 12, 2025 |
Ross Chastain, driver of the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet, met with the media in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series practice and qualifying session at Bristol Motor Speedway. | MEDIA RESOURCES: Photo Gallery | Race AdvancesChevrolet Newsroom |
| Media Availability Quotes: I know there’s a lot on the line tomorrow night in general, but the Bristol Night Race, what is the atmosphere of this event and competing in it as a driver?“Sunny, no clouds. Yeah, it’s incredible walking through the tunnel… it never gets old. For me, I equate it to driving through the tunnel at Daytona and driving down to Darlington. But here, it’s pulling up and seeing the stadium and then also walking through the turn three tunnel. It just never gets old. It’s so cool looking up at the banks and then the steepness of the grandstands. I went up and watched truck practice yesterday in the grandstands and then I was up in the Food City suite for the race. It’s just amazing. Just being here, even if there was no racing, it’s cool and you don’t get that everywhere.” You’re 19 points above the cutline. What does that do to add to the intensity of this weekend for you and the No. 1 team?“I think it puts us in a spot where we are fast enough to stay above the cutline, but a failure or an error, it’s easy to hit the wall here. They’ve painted them back to their old all-black. They’re waiting on you if you make a mistake, so we’ve got 500 laps to get through.” I wanted to ask you about your thoughts on racing at Bristol. You’ve had two of your career three top-10s in the last two races. Do you feel like you’re really figuring out? Do you like this kind of racing, this style of racing?“Yeah, I love it. I love the track. I love driving up here. I love driving on it, even when I’ve been slow and was really bummed. One of my early races here, I remember I think McDowell spun off of (turn) four and I was running last in the Premium Motorsports car. I piled into Truex and a couple of them. I was like, wait for me, I want to join the wreck. I remember I was so bummed, just because I wasn’t going to get to run a full night race here. I don’t know if it’s coming together or not, but Phil Surgen (crew chief) has been giving me good race cars here and we need that next step to put us really in contention to try to win. We’ve taken the step to get to the top-10 and we want to keep that going and take the next one.” You guys have did some behind-the-scenes competition changes not too long ago. Wondering if those are starting to bear fruit at all or is it still too soon?“I don’t know. I mean, I think that the idea and the direction Justin (Marks) wants to go; appointing Todd Meredith to be boots on the ground every day… wake up, be on the shop floor, upstairs or downstairs at Trackhouse. But to actually execute it… if Justin Marks believes in it, then we’re going that direction. So, we’re going to go that direction. Has it actually affected the cars? I wouldn’t know a right-front upper control arm if you sat it here on the table. So, I wouldn’t be able to tell. I look at them and I’m like — I mean, I could bolt it together. I could physically do it, but deciding where to bolt it, deciding what spring to put in the right-front, what shock clicks to put in the left-rear shock, what angle to run the diffuser… I don’t know that stuff. So, that’s for Todd to implement the right processes for then him to hire the right people to execute it. I don’t know. I really don’t. I stay in my swim lane when it comes to that stuff.” What’s your approach for tomorrow night, in terms of the balance versus being aggressive versus conservative? Because you guys are kind of in that sweet, mushy middle there where you’re smart and you can get through this, you’ll be okay, but you also have to be mindful of everybody else and what they’re potentially doing in terms of points… “Yeah. Well, we have to finish the race. We have to be rolling at the end, for sure. That’s every race if you want to do good. I don’t want to walk out of here with a sore shoulder (laughs). So, yeah, we have to finish and see. Today will set the tone for how fast we are, right? Long run in practice. How can we qualify? We have actually qualified last here in a Trackhouse car. I hope no other Trackhouse driver ever has to endure that because that was terrible. So, we’ll try to be better than that. Tomorrow, we’ll see where we start and that kind of sets the attitude for how we’re going to approach the start of the race at least.” From a competitor’s standpoint, when you come into a weekend where there’s unknowns about tires, all that stuff, do you prefer that or would you rather go into a weekend knowing, hey, it’s just a standard Bristol race?“I don’t think there’s been a standard Bristol race since they built the place. So, yeah, I think it’s always been like this. I think drivers always come in here nervous. I think they were more nervous back in the day because the safety of the cars wasn’t there. We’ve seen that they could literally knock the fence down. I mean, they would punch holes in the gates or whatever, the guardrail. We are in such a better spot. These really are the good old days at Bristol, from a safety perspective, I believe. It’s my opinion. I think drivers have been nervous walking into Bristol since they built it.” There was a little hubbub this week, not just about you and Shane van Gisbergen, but also some, I think, Chase Elliott and maybe Joey Logano, efforts post-race and then NASCAR making a ruling about those. Anything to say about how NASCAR has decided to enforce what drivers do post-race with the cars?“No, sir. NASCAR sets the rules. I just ask for the rule book, the schedule and let me go race.” |