“I Didn’t Want to Do It”: Ross Chastain Reveals Feeling the Immense Pressure of the Cup Series Before His Debut

Ross Chastain had second thoughts about his racing career in NASCAR. A journey that started with racing in late models soon took a turn into Truck Series racing. The original plan for the driver was just to try his hand at NASCAR racing. But his one race led to another, and the next thing you know, he was running multiple races.

However, a big opportunity came his way in 2017, when Premium Motorsports at Dover offered him a start in the Cup Series. For a driver who started out competing in the late model and Truck Series, a switch to Cup racing was a dream move. But, surprisingly, Chastain was skeptical about the big leap and initially decided to distance himself from racing in the premier stock car racing series. But something made him change his mind.

Here’s what led to Ross Chastain reversing his decision not to run in the Cup Series

The Trackhouse Racing star was 24 at the time and had good experience running in the Xfinity and the Truck Series. But somehow he had second thoughts about making his debut in the Cup Series. However, after giving the idea some thought for one whole night, he came to the understanding that it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and decided to start his journey in the premier division of NASCAR racing.

Sharing his story in an interview with Bob Pockrass, Chastain said, “I told the group that I was putting it together that I didn’t think I was ready and I didn’t want to do it. They tried to reason with me, and I just got up and left. I said I don’t want to do it, I don’t think I’m ready, I’m not going to do it. I slept on it that night, got back to shop the next day, and I realized I better take this opportunity because it might not ever come again.”

From making his Cup debut to now nearing 200 starts, the melon man even described how he measured success running early in his career. “What a lot of people don’t remember is I had two almost full seasons in last. 29th was good, and 27th was a win out of the 36 cars that show up. If we could get and stay single-digit laps down, finish 29th or 27th, that was our goal-first race out. Finished 20th, super-mega win. It didn’t happen ever again except for the Daytona 500, but yeah, I’ve got a lot of starts in the back.”

However, the start of the 2024 season has been the best one for Chastain, and his solid run at Texas was spoiled by William Byron, who crashed him out of a top-five finish.

A potential beef brewing up between Chastain and Byron

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Ross Chastain is known for his blocking skills and is considered the toughest guy to pass. But HMS driver, William Byron was not in the mood to comply with his style of running at Texas Motor Speedway. During the overtime finish, coming to the checkered flag, #1 and #24 were in a battle for the runner-up spot, with Chase Elliott cruising to victory. To everyone’s surprise, Byron bumped and crashed Chastain out of the race, ending his hopes for a first top-5 finish this season.

In his defense, the HMS star driver after the race said, “We just came together in a spot there. He was coming down the track to try to cover my run, and I was just making the corner exit like I anticipated him being where he would be on the exit. It’s unfortunate, but it’s racing on the last lap, and I’m just going to do that at times, probably to save that spot.”

Despite the P32 finish and late crash, the race was not in vain for Chastain, as he scored 10 stage points and a playoff point. It will be interesting to see how the two drivers deal with each other this weekend at Talladega.