Ross Chastain leaves no doubt about rooting against Joey Logano in favor of Michael McDowell

Ross Chastain pulled no punches when he made it known who he was rooting for to win Sunday's Cup Series race at Texas between Michael McDowell and Joey Logano. The driver of the #1 made it clear that he was hoping Logano wouldn't pass McDowell in the closing laps to win at the 1.5-mile track.

Logano overtook McDowell for the lead with four laps to go. One lap later, McDowell crashed his #71 machine and brought out a caution, which set up an overtime finish. From there, Logano wheeled his #22 machine to victory for his first win of the 2025 season. Meanwhile, Chastain finished second in his Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet.

When speaking to Frontstretch after the race, Chastain revealed he was rooting against Logano in the final laps. As Logano hunted down McDowell for the lead, Chastain was hopeful the latter would fend off the defending Cup champion.

"There's never been anybody in series cheering for the 71 car harder, not on his team, than I was. Wanted to see him win over that guy for sure," Ross Chastain said. (1:40 onwards)

Chastain recorded his second career runner-up finish at the Texas Motor Speedway and his second top-five run of the 2025 season. The five-time Cup Series winner recorded a fifth-place run at Las Vegas earlier in the season. After 11 races, Chastain sits 11th in the points standings and is currently 53 points above the playoff cut line.

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Ross Chastain reflected on his second-place Texas finish ahead of the Kansas Cup race

Ross Chastain had his work cut out for him in Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race at Texas as he started from the 31st position. In the end, the driver of the #1 put himself in position to win and ultimately came home second to winner Joey Logano.

Chastain took to X to reflect on the race after scoring his best finish of the 2025 season. The Florida native expressed gratitude for his Trackhouse Racing team for how they improved the car and hopes to finish one spot higher at Kansas this weekend. He wrote:

"Really proud of this 1 team for getting our car better throughout the race! Phil made some really good adjustments in the middle of the race to put us on the right track. We’ll take P2 but looking forward to trying for one better next weekend at @kansasspeedway!"

Chastain is the defending winner at the Kansas Speedway in the Cup Series after winning at the track last fall, his maiden win of the 2024 campaign. He was one of two non-playoff drivers, along with Ricky Stenhouse Jr., to win a playoff race last year.

Ross Chastain is in his fourth full-time Cup Series season with Trackhouse Racing. He's won all five of his career races with the team and posted a runner-up finish in the championship race back in 2022.