NASCAR MEDIA CONFERENCE

March 27, 2022

Ross Chastain

Frontstretch

An Interview with:

Q. Chastain has been so close this year to getting that first career win. Ross, today you couldn't be denied. You had to fend them off at the end. You go from first to third. There was beating, there was begging. What was that last lap like, and what is this first win like?

ROSS CHASTAIN: I don't know. It's insane. To go up against some of the best with AJ, I mean, I know he is going to be upset with me, but we raced hard, both of us, and he owes me one.

But when it comes to a Cup win, man, I can't let that go down without a fight. So Justin Marks, Trackhouse, AdventHealth, the Moose. A million Moose members, they better be celebrating tonight all across the country and the world.

Phil Surgen, man. He is so good. People don't know how good this group is. I can't believe Justin Marks hired me to drive this car.

Q. You lost control of that final restart. You get a good restart on the outside, which nobody had done. What did you have to do to make that happen, and how is that watermelon tasting right now?

ROSS CHASTAIN: It's never tasted sweeter, I got to tell you. I don't know. I don't know how we got back by. I was so worried about AJ on the second-to-last restart that I let Tyler drive right by both of us.

And AJ is so good. I've learned so much from him. And it was like how do you go beat the guy? He taught me so much. I've learned so much from so many people from 417 Speedway back home with my dad.

I was thinking about on those late restarts, my dad used to make me race on old tires, and back then I was not going to win. It was in my head before I even started. It crossed my mind, like, We're not going to win, we're on old tires, but I couldn't think that way. I thought neutral.

Chevrolet, everything they do for me gave me the tools to try to go execute and we did it.