Ross Chastain is at the Nashville Superspeedway ready to knock his Cup Series competitors out once again after a dramatic victory in the Coca-Cola 600 last Sunday. He went from 40th to first place to book his place in the upcoming playoffs and also marked his third top-five finish of the season. And all he wants to do now is move further up the ladder with a similar showing.
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On Saturday, he raced for JR Motorsports in the Xfinity Series and finished in fifth place. It was all the practice he needed heading into the main race on Sunday. He met with the media ahead of the event and detailed what his week after winning at the Charlotte Motor Speedway was like. It was filled with what anyone could guess: champagne, celebrations, and more champagne.
He said, “Yeah, we celebrated. We took Sunday night, took our sweet time in Victory Lane and just really soaked it in. It’s so rewarding when you get there because it’s so hard to accomplish it and to do it at the Coca-Cola 600 was just something that I wanted to just enjoy.” Following a visit to Milwaukee, Chastain had arrived in Nashville on Wednesday.
The rest of the week was spent in preparation for the weekend. Now that the Xfinity Series appearance is in the past, his focus is all on the Cup Series race. He added, “I’m really excited. I’m really ready to get in the race car. It’s been a lot of talking about what happened, but this sport moves on every seven days. It’s time to get going again.”
Chastain is in love with his win ring from the Coca-Cola 600
The No. 1 driver was seen wearing his win ring from last Sunday at Nashville this weekend. When questioned about it, Chastain said that it made him feel good given that he couldn’t lift the trophy he was presented with.
He also explained that Matt Kaulig used to give him win rings from Daytona in the Xfinity Series and that he also had one made after his first win with Trackhouse Racing (at COTA). “It’s a pretty cool collection,” he quipped. “I’m not a big ring guy. I’m not a jewelry guy. But these just have so much meaning in it. It says ‘Champion’ and it says ‘Coca-Cola 600 2025’.”
Some drivers would do anything to have just one of these rings that he has. Chastain said that he would remove the ring for practice. But then, it had served as a big motivating factor all week.
He said, “Sometimes I just had to touch the ring and be like — okay, smile, go to the next thing, make the next flight, get home, like all the stuff.” Safe to say, he is still unable to believe that he won a crown jewel race.
