After final-lap chaos, Ross Chastain wins his first Cup race at COTA

Ross Chastain finished first, second, third, and eventually won the NASCAR Cup Series on Sunday’s Circuit of the Americas.

Ross Chastain

As a late caution put Sunday’s race into a two-lap overtime, Tyler Reddick retained the top, but Chastain reclaimed the lead with a smart manoeuvre in the essess.

Chastain took the white flag as the lead on the final lap, but A.J. Allmendinger and Alex Bowman were not about to let him get away.

Coming into the closing laps, Allmendinger passed Chastain for the lead, and Bowman passed Allmendinger and Chastain on the outside to take the lead for a short moment.

Chastain swerved into Allmendinger, who collided with Bowman in the last turn, sending both cars off track and Chastain escaping with his first Cup Series win in 121 starts.

The victory is Trackhouse Racing’s first in the Cup series, as the team is just in its second full year of motorsport. Pitbull, a Grammy Award-winning rapper, and Justin Marks, a former driver, are co-owners of the team.

Chastain left his No. 1 Chevrolet following coming to a halt on the frontstretch and was handed a watermelon, which smashed on the track. Chastain grew up on a Florida watermelon plantation.

“It’s insane,” Chastain said. “To go up against some of the best with A.J., 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. … People don’t know how good this group is. I can’t believe Justin Marks hired me to drive this car.”

“I don’t know how we got back by. I was so worried about A.J. on the second-to-last restart that I let Tyler drive right by both of us,” Chastain stated when questioned how he won after lack of control of the race on the last restart. 

“And A.J. 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.

“We did it!”

Bowman finished second, Christopher Bell was third, Chase Elliott was fourth, and Reddick completed the top five.

Ryan Blaney, Martin Truex Jr., Austin Cindric, Erik Jones, and Austin Dillon rounded out the top ten.

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A.J. Allmendinger, Alex Bowman, Daytona 500, Grand Prix, IndyCar, Nascar, NASCAR Cup Series, Ross Chastain, Xfinity

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