Ross Chastain reacts to missing NASCAR playoffs despite a top 5 finish at Darlington

Trackhouse Racing driver Ross Chastain won't compete for the prestigious NASCAR Cup Series championship this year, as he failed to qualify for the playoffs in the Sunday’s regular-season finale race at Darlington Raceway. After the race, Chastain shed light on what went wrong that he couldn’t make the playoffs this year.

In the post-race interview, Chastain, who registered a P5 finish at Darlington’s challenging track, was disappointed with the performance of his #1 Chevrolet, as he believed that his car needed more improvements throughout the season to be competitive.

Speaking to Frontstretch’s Stephen Stumpf about his outing at Darlington and narrowly missing the NASCAR playoffs, Chastain said:

“It needed a lot. It needed more throughout the season. Here tonight, we got it better and continued to work on it. We had some great strategy that kept us out of wrecks and had us on older tires, newer tires.

"Hopefully we need better balance to do what Dave did. He drove it a little bit harder than I could have, so I couldn't have done that if I had been in his position. still too tight in the end.” [1:20]

The 31-year-old was 27 points below the cutline and in a must-win situation to make the playoffs entering Cook Out Southern 500.

Ross Chastain, who has been associated with Trackhouse Racing since 2022, had made the playoff appearance in back-to-back years. He ended the 2022 season as championship runner-up and was ninth last year in the final championship standings.

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Ross Chastain was in contention to win during final stage at Darlington

The #1 Trackhouse Racing Chevy driver started the Southern 500 from the 22nd position and worked the entire night battling for the 16th and the final spot in the playoffs.

Ross Chastain led the race for the first time after the sixth caution for Carson Hocevar’s wreck when the rest of the race leaders came to pit road for new tires on Lap 338 of the 367.

Chastain was leading the race until Chase Briscoe went three wide into Turn 3 on Lap 342 to pass both Kyle Larson and Chastain to grab the lead, and then Briscoe never looked back till he crossed the finish line in P1. Chastain had to settle for a P5 finish.

The last time Ross Chastain won a NASCAR Cup Series race was in 2023 at Phoenix Raceway in the championship 4 race. He will look to score his first win of the season as there are 10 more opportunities left to reach the victory line this season.