The Trackhouse Racing team undoubtedly has been working hard to climb the leaderboard in every outing. While Ross Chastain and Daniel Suarez have managed to break through and taste some success, Shane van Gisbergen is yet to settle into a rhythm alongside the frontrunners in his rookie season.
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What raises eyebrows is the fact that the team’s best qualifying performance this season came during the only road course race so far at COTA, with Suarez rolling off from P5 and SVG from P6. Other than that, all three drivers have been left playing catch-up from the rear of the grid at ovals.
When asked about the team’s ongoing qualifying issues, Ross Chastain didn’t mince words. He admitted that even the team remains in the dark about the root cause and is throwing everything in hopes of finding a breakthrough.
As he put it, “We don’t have answers. We have a lot of questions. That’s the problem as well. It’s all that we have. We’re trying, I believe it. I surely believe that we will get back to our qualifying, put it on pole, put top-10. Right now, we’re just trying to get 20. We need to start midpack.”
“Yeah, I don’t know the answer. I don’t know what to fix it, but we’re having those conversations. We are trying, we’re changing things. We’re a competitive group and we’re not happy with Saturday,” he continued.
A recurring problem for Trackhouse Racing this year has been a lack of speed in qualifying, leading to Ross Chastain & Co. having to grind out good finishes on race day.
Chastain says Trackhouse has a lot of questions, but they don’t have answers and are just trying to get back… pic.twitter.com/64ogtyzhdk
— Steven Taranto (@STaranto92) May 7, 2025
Chastain has chalked up two top-fives and another four top-10s so far, showing he can hold his own when it counts. But with only two starts inside the top-10, qualifying has been his Achilles’ heel. His average finish of 13.55 keeps him within striking distance of the top-10 in the regular season standings, but starting on average from 23.5 means he’s often fighting an uphill battle.
Suarez, too, has had his work cut out for him. In the first 11 races, he has managed just one top-10 start. Despite that, he’s walked away with one top-five and another pair of top-10s, landing him at P25 in the driver standings with an average finish of 19.7.
As for SVG, he seems to be biding his time for another road course event — his comfort zone — while he gets around the intricacies of oval racing in the Next Gen setup. With only one top-10 finish to his name, van Gisbergen currently sits P35 in the points standings, holding an average finish of 27.45.
