How Ross Chastain’s Charlotte woes gave Joey Logano a lifeline in the NASCAR championship fight?

Ross Chastain endured an unfortunate day at the Charlotte Roval. Pit stop miscues and a backward finish saw the No.1 driver lose out to Joey Logano for the final Round of 8 berth.

Chastain began his day tenth on the running order, while Logano started further back in 17th. The Trackhouse driver was fast enough to grab stage points, but overshot his pit exit after Stage 1.

He recovered nonetheless and made it past Logano in Stage 2. However, his woes began when he was found speeding on pit road during a lap 87 service. Chastain double-clicked into third gear and immediately dialled back, but it wasn't enough to avoid a pass-through penalty.

Logano would later pit with 10 laps to go, leaving Chastain a 10-point lead in the standings as he opted to stay out and fight for his spot. With four laps left, Logano had passed multiple cars and brought down the gap to three points.

Heading into the final corners, Chastain went for a desperate move over Denny Hamlin and wiped out both cars in the process. As he scrambled across the finish line in reverse, Logano passed him by 0.167 seconds to grab the final transfer spot.

In a post-race interview, Chastain had this to say about his costly late-race lunge(via X/KelleyCrandall)

"Get to the 11. They said I had to be in the front of the 11. So, I did what I had to do to be in front of the 11"

Kelly Crandall

@KellyCrandall

Ross Chastain on the final chicane: “Get to the 11. They said I had to be in the front of the 11. So, I did what I had to do to be in front of the 11.”

Logano, meanwhile, addressed the final chicane turnaround and said(via Racer.com),

"I saw [Chastain] going in there sideways trying to get the No. 11 and I was like, ‘Oh boy, this could be the difference right here.’ But at that point, I was just a passenger.....I was too far back to do anything myself, so I was just going to go through the corner and hope for the best.”

Ross Chastain's Trackhouse teammate, Shane van Gisbergen, won the race and made it his fifth in a row on road courses.

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"It's all on me": Ross Chastain takes responsibility for playoff exit

Ross Chastain cut a despondent look after his late-race playoff exit in an otherwise fast car. Chastain finished among the top 5 in both stages, while Joey Logano could only manage a top-10 by Stage 2.

In a post-race interview, Chastain placed blame on himself, saying(via NASCAR's official website),

“I single-handedly took a car out of the Round of 8 and a chance to go to the round of four....Today, we were good enough to run top five and I took us out of that. It’s all on me.”

Ross Chastain's exit secures yet another shot at the title for defending champion Joey Logano. His teammate Ryan Blaney, on the other hand, trails the playoff leader, Denny Hamlin, by two points.