WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. – The Coca-Cola 600 seems like an eternity ago.
That long, steamy, spring night stands as the highlight of Ross Chastain’s 2025 season, scoring his first crown jewel victory – and already fading from memory.
In the two-and-a-half months since running 600 miles at Charlotte Motor Speedway, it has been Shane van Gisbergen leading the way for Trackhouse Racing, winning all three road course races that have been completed before Sunday’s Go Bowling at The Glen at Watkins Glen International (2 p.m. ET, USA Network, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Meanwhile, Chastain dropped six spots in the regular-season championship standings over the last 10 races with a pair of top-10 finishes.
“The high spot of the 600 is an incredible feat of what we were able to do that whole weekend,” Chastain said on Saturday at Watkins Glen. “Be fast on Saturday — I know we crashed, but I will take some speed if it is at some risk, and it just hasn’t been that way. There has been some risk, but we’ve been slow. Not much different than before the 600.”
Over that 10-race stretch, the No. 1 Chevrolet has a best effort of sixth at Michigan International Speedway. His other top 10 was a 10th-place finish at the Chicago Street Course. Half of the 10 races have had results of 24th or worse, all of which have come in the last seven races.
The overarching problem for the No. 1 team in 2025 has been showing competitive pace off the hauler. Through the first 23 races of the season leading into Watkins Glen, Chastain had an average starting position of 22.3, ranking 26th of full-time drivers. He does lead the way for Trackhouse drivers, with Shane van Gisbergen and Daniel Suárez more than a full position behind on average, however, and put the car in the second row on Saturday with a fourth-place qualifying effort.
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Through May, Chastain made a living by getting respectable finishes despite woes in qualifying. Seven of his nine top-10 finishes in 2025 came in the opening 13 races of the season.
Trackhouse team owner Justin Marks knows the No. 1 team can flip the switch, however. It’s the same team that made a Championship 4 run during the inaugural season with the Next Gen chassis in 2022, and Chastain has won at least one race all four years he’s been paired with the young race team.
“I mean, the pace in the race, I think, has been pretty good,” Marks stated on Saturday. “I think we’re able to make lemonade out of lemons a lot more often than not. I think that for us, we do have to get better on Saturdays. We absolutely have to get better on Saturdays if the No. 1 team is going to have an opportunity to deep run into the playoffs, because if you qualify 28th, it’s just so hard to pull yourself out of that. So that’s where the focus is.”
Should the No. 1 car unload faster more frequently, Marks believes the No. 1 team can be a dangerous out in the playoffs.
“If we can get those Saturdays to be better, if we can get the No. 1 team off the hauler faster in practice, better qualifying, better pit selections, and better position for strategy, then we’ll see what that group is capable of,” Marks added. “My hope is that we’ll get there. There’s certainly as much fight in that team as there’s ever been.”
The primary focus for Chastain during the race is to take what the No. 1 car will allot him. He pointed out a wreck late at Dover Motor Speedway as an example where he overstepped, trying to score one additional point. The following week at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Michael McDowell mistimed the entry of Turn 3 and tagged Chastain. It was the first time he had consecutive DNFs since 2018 while driving for Premium Motorsports.
Chastain is living by the adage of, “to finish first, first you must finish.”
And he’ll look to build upon last year’s stellar fourth-place finish from the pole on Sunday at The Glen.