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NASCAR GANDER OUTDOORS TRUCK SERIES: FORD ECOBOOST 200November 15, 2019Ross ChastainHomestead, Florida ROSS CHASTAIN: Yeah, we wrote a new story. It hasn't been done. Proud of the effort all year. We started out with a handful of races actually a year ago, calendar year ago, I was going to run five races in Al's truck. When everything went down over the off‑season, it was as many races as possible, but it was still going to be in the teens total number total of races. And when stuff went down on the Xfinity side and it just became apparent that we weren't going to be able to be competitive and push forward, or maybe not even run all the races, it was a no‑brainer, and I was 100 percent on board. That was about four nights of the scariest time of my life of thinking of switching points, because it had not been done before, never on purpose and never with this mentality that you're going to go win a championship. It's pretty crazy that we did that and that we made it to Homestead. We finished the best out of the Chevys. We did everything we could. That says a lot. Tonight we fired off well, had a lot of speed. Too loose all night, and just stayed too loose as the track‑‑ we tightened our truck up, but we built free with the track all night. Never made a big enough dent in it and just too far back when it mattered. Q. You did have a good season. I know it's not the way you wanted. Have you already started putting the plans in place for next year? Do you know what you're going to declare next year? Do you know what you're going to do? Do you have a plan or is it still up in the air? ROSS CHASTAIN: We do. We've planted our seed at Kaulig Racing and Nutrien Ag Solutions. So we'll be there full time. Yep, 23 races with Nutrien Ag Solutions and filling in the rest. But Matt Kaulig has made the commitment that we'll race all year in the 10 car alongside Justin Haley. Looking forward to that. Made a big step at Texas a couple weeks ago, ran second. It's our best finish together on a mile‑and‑a‑half, and it was a really big step for us and a really big shot in the arm after the hauler crashed and we lost two cars, lost everything in the hauler. It was complete devastation. Yep, we'll be up there, and I'll still run a bunch of truck races and anything else anybody will let me drive. Q. Does that help take the sting out of this championship? ROSS CHASTAIN: No, I'm a racer. I want to win, especially as good as we were at the start there with clean air. Just trying to manage those guys, I felt like we did a good job those first two stages. 16 was by far the best truck, 88 came on strong there in that final run. Once he got clean air on the other three of us, it was game over. We were all fighting for second at that point. Q. You actually kind of touched on where I wanted to start. You mentioned obviously 2020, and we know you'll be in the Xfinity Series, but are we going to see you back with Al in the trucks if you can make that work? ROSS CHASTAIN: Absolutely, every race possible. If it takes jets and helicopters and whatever, we'll have to figure out how to pay for that, but whatever it takes, yeah, I want to race. I want to race everything. Selfishly, I wish there was some way of‑‑ I know there's the anti‑Kyle rule where he can't run, but all the rest of us guys that are truck and Xfinity regulars either do Cup or truck and Xfinity or something like that where you can dual role. There's programs that would thrive on that, and it would bolster the two series, I think, if they worked together instead of just you have to pick one. So it would help‑‑ like John Hunter Nemechek could have raced tonight. I know that would have helped his family‑owned team, if he could have done that. They could have sold sponsorship around it, you can do a lot of things. So it's a double‑edged sword. I know that I'm being selfish in saying that. But, yes, any chance I get, I will drive for Al. Q. In regards to your race tonight specifically, could you pinpoint something in your truck that changed, or was it just that that 88 found something that put them a little bit above everybody else? ROSS CHASTAIN: Yeah, I don't know. I'll have to watch it back. I was really loose from the very start of the race, even when we were out front, would fire off incredible. And we saw that all day, and we just built loose after lap 7 or 8. And then at lap 15 it would get sideways, and on corner exit it would just be spinning the tires. I don't think anything changed on ours. I don't know about the 88. He was fast all night. I could see him right there with us. Clean air is king, so when we had it, we could hold him off; and once he had it, he could drive away. So they had just a little bit better truck. THE MODERATOR: Ross, congratulations on a great season, and good luck in 2020. Enjoy the off‑season. ROSS CHASTAIN: I appreciate all you guys. I won't obviously be in here on Sunday, so thank you, it means a lot. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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