“Money Buys Speed” – Winless Ross Chastain Reveals His Shortcomings While Competing with the Big Dogs

2024 has been a hit-and-miss for Trackhouse Racing so far. From their MotoGP venture to Daniel Saurez’s iconic win over Ryan Blaney and Kyle Busch, Justin Marks’ brainchild is slowly maturing into quite the formidable force. However, there’s one team member who man feels that the 2024 season is yet to be as kind to him. For Ross Chastain, the first win of the season seems so close, yet so far away.

As Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing continue to dominate, a common theme is emerging. The teams with the greatest backing are leaving teams like SHR in the dust, so much so that even charter sale rumors are making the rounds. With cash proving to be king in every form of motorsport, Ross Chastain believes this is the one factor that Trackhouse Racing is yet to fully conquer.

Despite their underdog status, Ross Chastain highlights Trackhouse Racing’s journey toward the top

In only its third season of competition, Trackhouse Racing has become a fan favorite. But for the mastermind behind the Hail Melon, the on-track progress this season hasn’t been too great. Every time the #1 Trackhouse Racing driver gets close to a podium or a win, one painstaking truth about the Cup Series reveals itself. Going up against teams with legacies spanning across decades is no easy feat. Especially in a sport that requires millions in investment each year.

Whilst Chastain believes that there is a lot of catching up Trackhouse needs to do with teams like HMS and JGR, he also realizes that to get there, it needs a lot of work, but primarily investment. Chastain shared on NASCAR Live, “I mean look, we’re competing with the greats of the sport, and the fact that we’re competing for the third year now is no surprise, but it’s hard and challenging.” 

Currently, the Trackhouse Racing team is relying on its partnership with General Motors to help bridge that gap. Chastain revealed that the Chevrolet tech center in Concord is a major help to both the #1 and #99 teams, stating: “Daniel and I live over there basically. We spend a lot of hours there and our teams rely on it a lot. So we’re in a good spot.”

But that isn’t the only thing that will get them there. Chastain also highlighted the grim reality of motorsports; ever-increasing expenses. As competition gets tougher and teams keep innovating, costs naturally go up. This, for Chastain, seems to be the greatest barrier to success. He shared, “Money buys speed, and you’re gonna see that in any form of racing, from the grassroots to hobby stock to street stock level. Whatever your most entry-level class is at your local quarter-mile track, up to Cup, money buys speed.”

Fortunately for Trackhouse Racing, Justin Marks and his associates are sparing no expenses to ensure they can stand tall against the likes of Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing. He concluded, “The good part is, we’ve got a couple of owners that like spending money. And we’re finding ways for them to do it and they’re encouraging us to find more ways of what we need to invest in. We don’t have the manpower, we don’t have the quantity of people, but we’ve got quality. Don’t sleep on us for sure.” 

Although the 2024 season hasn’t been too kind to the #1 Trackhouse garage, it’s only a matter of time before Chastain is a regular in victory lane.

Chastain believes his Vegas moment will come again

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As the celebrations at Trackhouse Racing from Daniel Suarez’s win at Atlanta settled, Ross Chastain lit the fire once again at Vegas as he headed toward victory lane. Unfortunately, a penalty owing to his speed on the pit road led to the #1 Trackhouse Racing driver finishing outside of the podium instead. Chastain hasn’t managed to break into the top five frequently since then.

That being said, the #1 driver believes that minor changes could improve things significantly. He shared on NASCAR Live, “I think we’ve got opportunities to win. I think that our best one so far had been Las Vegas and I sped on pit road and took us out but we were capable of running with the #5 and #45. We still finished third (on track) on two tires, but I believe we were capable before that of running with them and beating them on all fours.” 

Chastain also acknowledged that Trackhouse Racing, specifically his side of the garage, seemed to swing one of two ways. Either they were running and chasing for a top five, or they fell back to the top fifteen. He stated, “Other than that, we’ve had our fair share of twelfth-place days and our fair share of seventh-place days, and I feel like we’re right in that window.”

As the playoffs get closer and stage points become crucial, Chastain believes that progress lies in smaller details. He concluded, “So, a little bit more, little balance, little less disparity front to rear, side to side of tire’s sliding, and we’ll get into the top five. And I feel like once you’re in the top five, then you’ve got shots (at winning) every week.” 

Ross Chastain shows great optimism not just with his ability to win this season but also with the direction Trackhouse Racing is headed. But do you think that the dominance of HMS and JGR could be challenged by younger teams shortly?