CONCORD, N.C. — Amid the screaming on the radio after he won the Coca-Cola 600, Ross Chastain had a message for his team.
“Thank you for working all damn night,” he said.
The longest race of the NASCAR Cup season was preceded by one of the longest nights of the year for Chastain’s team after he crashed his primary car in practice Saturday at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
“This group of guys that I’ve got is relentless,” crew chief Phil Surgen said. “There was no question that everybody was going to give every bit of effort they had. … We had shop guys that were at concerts and ball games and everything that just dropped what they were doing, came to the shop.”
About 33 hours after a tire blew and sent Chastain’s car into the wall in practice, he celebrated his first Coca-Cola 600 victory with a burnout, reverse victory lap, watermelon smash and a trip into the stands to share some of that watermelon with fans.
Winning pass comes with five laps remaing in NASCAR’s longest race.
Originally, the plan was to fix the car Chastain wrecked. Teams can’t go to a backup car unless NASCAR allows it. As more damage was uncovered in the car, NASCAR approved the team to go to a backup.
Normally, teams would have a backup car at the track but with most of the race shops near Charlotte Motor Speedway — Trackhouse Racing is 6.8 miles away — those vehicles were at the race shops.
The team loaded Chastain’s wrecked car into a hauler at the track to go to the shop. Trackhouse team members followed and began to convert what was to have been the backup car for this weekend’s race at Nashville into Chastain’s car for Charlotte.
The team had to transfer the engine from primary car to what Chastain would race. Work was need to on the interior of the car. They changed the transaxle. Adjustments to the suspension were made. The team had to scale the car to make sure it was within NASCAR’s tolerances. The car had to be wrapped with all the sponsor logos to match the primary car.
Crashes ended Kyle Larson’s races at Indianapolis and Charlotte.
Chastain was part of the radio broadcast for Saturday’s Xfinity race, and returned to the shop after that race. He stayed until about 10 p.m. before he was told to leave and rest for 600 miles of racing the next day.
Team members were there until about 2:30 a.m. and returned at 5:30 a.m. to continue working on the car.
It wasn’t until about 12:30 p.m. that the team finished the car and loaded into a hauler to transport to Charlotte Motor Speedway. Team members went to the track and sent the car went through inspection there
Highlights: NASCAR Cup Series race at Charlotte
Relive a dramatic NASCAR Cup Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
The garage opened at 2 p.m. for crew members and teams could begin to do certain pre-race checks with the car. Once that was done and car was pushed to the grid on pit road, car chief David Fero had a few moments to himself.
“I just sat outside (the team’s hauler) on a cooler and took a moment for myself in silence,” he said. “Just needed to get my thoughts together. You build a car in that time frame, you’re exhausted.
“There’s a lot of components. We’re pretty disciplined when it comes to checklists and processes and all of that, but in that moment, sometimes you kind of push that aside and just do what has to be done.
“An hour before the race you’re just sitting there, kind of doing a mental checklist in your head. You’re thinking about the engine, you’re thinking about the floor, you’re thinking about the rear end, everyone else and just taking a moment to be ready for the race because it’s long, 600 miles. It can be really grueling.”
Quotes from the longest race on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule.
As he stood in victory lane next to the car, Fero admitted: “I’m slightly exhausted right now because I haven’t slept.”
While each of Trackhouse Racing’s other eight Cup wins carry significance for various reasons, Sunday’s was special to team owner Justin Marks for what the team overcame to win its first Cup crown jewel event.
“I stood in front of everybody at this organization the first day that I took ownership of it back at the end of 2021, and I said, you know, We have everything that we need to be successful here,” Marks said. “We just have to work together. We have to believe in each other, and we have to fundamentally believe that we can do it, that we can go win big races and contend for championships. If we support each other and go the extra mile and do whatever it takes, then we can get there.
“I think this weekend was a beautiful expression of that, and I am so … unbelievably proud of everybody because what they did this weekend was very, very, very difficult. It was truly a team win.”
