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| Logan Riely/Getty Images |
Ross Chastain, driver of the Trackhouse Racing No. 1 Chevrolet Camaro, has won the NASCAR Cup Series 2022 "EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix" at Austin, Texas’ Circuit of the Americas.
In a dominant showing for Trackhouse Racing, Circuit of the Americas served as a successful afternoon for the organization navigating their sophomore season. To start the weekend strong Daniel Suárez qualified the team’s No. 99 Camaro second, starting on the outside pole for Sunday’s race. In this race Suárez would lead much of the first stage and even scored a stage win, before hard luck left the 30-year-old driver spinning, resulting in a flat tire. Soon thereafter, Ross Chastain would wheel the team’s No. 1 Chevy to the front of the field and would dominate much of the second stage.
After battling hard with Team Penske’s driver of the No. 2 Austin Cindric, Ross Chastain and Cindric would make their way to pit road with only a handful of laps remaining in the stage. This strategy would leave Chastain out of the question when it came to winning the second stage. Denny Hamlin who was working with a different pit-stop cycle, managed to stay out on track and capture the second stage win in this race.
Throughout the final, and most lengthy stage of the NASCAR Cup Series’ March race at Circuit of the Americas, Ross Chastain, as well as other competitors such as Tyler Reddick, Chase Briscoe, Kyle Busch, and Alex Bowman found themselves at the front of the field.
By this point in the race, 'road course ringer' AJ Allmendinger had quietly wheeled his No. 16 Kaulig Racing Camaro to the front of the field. As the race began facing repetitive restarts, angst grew within the top five contenders. Drivers like Ross Chastain, Tyler Reddick and AJ Allmendinger found themselves pressuring each other more and more with every corner, and every restart.
On what would become the final restart Ross Chastain managed to pull away from close contender AJ Allmendinger. Chastain and Allmendinger both had advantages and shortcomings with their driving styles, though Chastain's unique differences were shining in these final two laps. Chastain and the No. 1 team managed to stretch out their lead as the race barely wound down, though the most exciting move of the race was about to occur. In one of the sharper turns both drivers needed to drastically slow down as they approached the corner. AJ Allmendinger searching for a last chance to win saw opportunity as his race car approached the leader. Now at the back bumper of Ross Chastain, AJ Allmendinger awarded Ross Chastain a effortful bump, which sent Chastain very wide into the corner. Throwing Chastain 'off track' allowed the driver of the No. 16 to make the pass and lead his way through the next corner.
Third place contender Alex Bowman surprisingly wheeled his No. 48 Camaro into the picture as the two leaders had tussled in the corner. Three abreast Ross Chastain has caught AJ Allmendinger, and with a new twist, Alex Bowman was now competing with the other. Ross Chastain, who had received quite the bump from Allmendinger just a few corners before looked at his position as an opportunity to find payback and put himself ahead. Coming up behind Allmendinger with force, Ross Chastain sent a bump to the No. 16 car. Allmendinger's No. 16 Camaro went sideways flying into Alex Bowman, and eventually winding up in the gravel. This action cleared the way for Chastain to lead through the remaining corners as even Bowman in second place were not close enough to be of concern.
Ross Chastain would take the final corners of the circuit and brought home a historical victory scoring a first time win for himself and Trackhouse Racing.
Here are the complete race results from the 2022 "EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix" at COTA:
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| NASCAR.com |
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