While Daniel Suarez won at Atlanta and secured a playoff berth, the Trackhouse team was hopeful their star driver, Ross Chastain, would soon follow. Chastain has consistently made the playoffs since joining the young team. However, a series of poor finishes knocked him out. But since the playoffs began, the “Melon Man” has been keen on playing the spoiler.

Finally snapping his winless streak of the season—along with a watermelon—the #1 driver took the checkered flag in Kansas. Although a bit late, Chastain has ultimately found the consistency he had been seeking all season. Since the last Daytona race, his worst finish has been 13th. However, the same cannot be said for his Spanish teammate, who finds himself in the elimination zone.

Ross Chastain finds his old form back

Chastain ended the regular season with a P5 finish at Darlington, but it was too late to point his way into the playoffs. However, the old Chastain finally resurfaced. He is in top form, just like in 2022 when he finished second in the season. First up was the Atlanta playoff opener, where Chastain finished 13th. Although he was in the top 5 until the last lap, pushing Suarez, he eventually crashed and fell outside the top 10. At Watkins Glen, he secured a P4 finish, followed by a 10th-place finish at Bristol.

This consistency continued into the second round of the playoffs. After starting the Kansas race from P20, Ross Chastain slowly climbed his way up. Staying out of the top 10 in both stages, Chastain pitted early to capitalize in the final stage. He took the lead on lap 177 and had an intense battle with Kyle Busch as they traded leads. Chastain led the race five times for 52 laps. Thanks to the Chase Briscoe and Kyle Busch crash, he led the final 20 laps, bagging his first win of the season.

Ross Chastain, after the race, said, “This is incredible! To drive into victory lane in the Cup Series, it’s just so challenging. It’s so tough. That process I talked about last year in Nashville, we all stayed on it. We haven’t gone anywhere. We keep showing up. It’s not easy when you’re failing or struggling at something, and you just can’t get to where you want to get to.” Recently NASCAR analyst Eric Estepp spoke about Chastain’s comeback journey.

In his recent video, he said, “There was a reason why on Thursday Ross Chastain was one of the few non-playoff drivers mentioned during our weekend preview episode. Not only did he show speed at this track in the spring leading a bunch of laps in stage one he’s also been extremely consistent recently. Obviously just missed out on qualifying for the playoffs but that hasn’t slowed him down.” 

According to Estepp, Trackhouse is currently in its best form of the whole season. However, Suarez did not have the best day on the track and is struggling in the playoffs.

Daniel Suarez’s playoff chances

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Daniel Suarez finished the Kansas race in 13th place and is currently 10th in the playoff standings, 14 points below the cutoff line. After the race, the #99 driver expressed his disappointment, as, unlike his teammate, Suarez started the race from P10 but couldn’t capitalize on it. Suarez said, “Our No. 99 Worldwide Express Chevy was pretty good yesterday, but today, we just missed it. We couldn’t make the front turn on the short runs, and we were way too free on the long runs. We just struggled with the balance all day. We didn’t feel very good. It was a decent finish, but I feel like our Chevy had much more potential.”

Despite being in the elimination zone, Suarez’s playoff campaign has been a mixed one so far. He secured a P2 finish in Atlanta, followed by a P13 at Watkins Glen, and a disappointing P31 to wrap up Round 1. Next up is Talladega, and Suarez has been fast on speedways this year. Specifically, at Talladega, he’s managed three top-10 finishes in his last five races. However, his most recent outing resulted in a 26th-place finish in the spring race this year. The #99 also managed back-to-back good finishes in Atlanta this season, which now races as a superspeedway after its reconfiguration.

The eliminator for this round is at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course, and Suarez has had a decent record at road courses this year. While COTA saw a disappointing P31 finish, he managed top-15 finishes in the last two road course races, including a P14 at Sonoma. However, his track record at the ROVAL hasn’t been impressive. Last year, he finished 33rd, with his best finish being P13 in 2021.

What do you think are Suarez’s chances in the playoffs? Can Chastain aid him in Talladega like he did in Atlanta? Let us know in the comments below.