Ross Chastain salvages his ‘terrible’ race with a stunning fight back in the final stage of the Texas playoff race

Trackhouse Racing driver Ross Chastain lost the Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400 to William Byron by a margin of 1.863 seconds on Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway. He was struggling at the start of the final stage, running P30, but he did somehow make a comeback to finish the race in second place.

Chastain started fifth and his #1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet showed good pace throughout the race. He secured eighth place in Stage 2 but later lost track position after he stalled on pit road. His team was struggling with a throttle position sensor issue, Chastain suddenly finds himself in a difficult situation.

Speaking about the issue during the post-race interview, Chastain said:

“It was terrible. You push the gas and it ain't got no gas. I noticed something on a few cautions like having the car off in third gear, clutching, dropped the clutch with the ignition on, and it kind of stumbled, but I thought I just had it too low of RPM. Then I pit, and that pitstop is when it had already failed, and it wouldn't go. I'm part throttle to get it fired, and it doesn't think I'm doing anything,” as quoted by motorsports.com.

The caution provided an opportunity to gain some position and Chastain returned to the top15 with two fresh tires. He then maintained his 11th position as the laps progressed.

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“We were not fast enough to run second with two tires” – Ross Chastain

In a chaotic race that saw Kyle Larson crash, multiple restarts and William Byron’s bold three-wide winning move, it was a surprise to all who finished second. It was Ross Chastain, who scored his best finish since winning at Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway.

Speaking on his stunning fight back in the final stage from the sensor issue, Chastain commented:

“From there they walked me through it, and basically I just had to give it a lot of throttle, so the next pit stop for our final two-tire stop was just a whole lot of throttle. I'm sure the eardrums were blown out of everybody behind our pit box, but for our Worldwide Express Chevy, we were not fast enough to run second with two tires. We were with four,” as quoted by motorsports.com.

Ross Chastain currently sits at sixth place in playoff standings 12 points above the cut-off line going into the next race of Round of 8.