LAS VEGAS — Since starting a Cup Series team, Trackhouse Racing has always excelled at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 didn’t start swiftly for any of the Trackhouse teams. Shane van Gisbergen had multiple flat tires and called it a day after completing 195 laps. Neither Ross Chastain nor Daniel Suárez earned points in the first stage.
As the race progressed, Chastain and Suárez powered through the field. It was a two-tire call by Chastain’s crew chief Phil Surgen on Lap 146 that gave the No. 1 Chevrolet a strong track position. In a 15-lap stretch to the end of the second stage, Chastain held on to third, tallying eight stage points. Suárez wasn’t far behind in seventh.
During the final stage, the two Trackhouse teammates had different strategies. When a caution flew on Lap 195 for a pileup on the backstretch, Suárez stayed on the track. Chastain pitted, believing the No. 1 car was on the cusp of making it to the finish on fuel.
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Noah Gragson blew a right-front tire on Lap 242, interrupting a cycle of green-flag pit stops. Suárez was in second behind Joey Logano when the caution waved. But when the No. 22 team lost 19 spots on pit road, Suarez was the new leader with Josh Berry on the front row.
Chastain lined up behind Suárez for the restart, shoving the No. 99 car to the race lead. It wasn’t enough, however, as Berry passed Suárez for the lead on Lap 252 and went on to score his elusive first Cup victory.
“I was fully committed to him and happy to do it,” Chastain said of the restart. “We stayed connected well. It was aggressive, but it got him the lead and he bottomed out too hard with his car and it let [Berry] get inside of him a couple of laps into that run. Bummer because he had a better car than we did and had a shot to win and it just slipped away from us.”
Suárez took the checkered flag in second, snapping a three-race skid of finishing 23rd or worse, including a pair of DNFs. It’s his best result since the 2024 playoff opener at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Meanwhile, Chastain chalked up another top-five finish in Sin City, which is statistically his best venue on the circuit. He entered the event with five top-10 finishes, including four top fives in six starts with the No. 1 team.
Las Vegas is just the fourth time in team history that Trackhouse put multiple entries inside the top five. It’s the first time since the swansong race at Auto Club Speedway in 2023.
“It was good. Definitely very important,” Suárez said of his runner-up finish. “Especially with the 99. I think [Chastain] has had a couple decent results this year, but the 99 has been running very well lately and we’ve been getting wrecked for one reason or another.
“It sucks to be that close. Sometimes, I feel like third feels better than second. We did everything in our power at the end. We just needed to be a little bit better in the short run.”
By scoring 39 points, Suárez leaped 10 spots in the regular-season standings, now ranking 19th. The 40 points earned by Chastain were the fifth-most points tallied during the race and Chastain bumped up six positions in the standings.
“It’s huge,” Chastain noted of Trackhouse’s performance. “The last thing I said to [Suárez] was it’s pretty cool to be talking about finishing second and fifth and legitimately running up there. It’s so frustrating because I saw how close Daniel was. Daniel had the better Trackhouse car today and for him to be so close, it’s a bummer.”