After many struggles that manifested since last year, Ross Chastain announced himself as back and better than ever. He did it spectacularly by winning the Coca-Cola 600 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. This was his first crown jewel win, and it was historic. He became the first driver since Bobby Allison in 1969 to win a race starting officially from the last place. And that timing of this win couldn’t have been better given Chastain’s growing frustration, yet this wasn’t a dominant display by any means.

The #24 was the most dominant car, leading 283 laps and sweeping off the stage wins. All Chastain needed was to lead the final six laps after making a sketchy pass on his rival. But despite having the long-run speed, why wasn’t Byron able to grab his lead or contest late in the race? It looks like Denny Hamlin has the answer to this query, as he was right there battling with the HMS driver until his car ran out of fuel.

“So I knew that my balance was not where it needed to be on the car, on that last run. Still was catching Byron in the long run. So I thought that Chastain nailed his balance. I thought that the #22 and the #45 was holding up the #24 just enough to give him some dirty air. Yeah, they just reeled him in. I looked at the end of the race, and I knew that I saw Logano with lots of laps to go. Byron actually ended up never passing him. So I guess he just lost the balance of the car,” Hamlin explained on the Actions Detrimental Podcast.

Hamlin ran down Byron for the race lead on lap 262, and the two drivers exchanged the lead 15 times. So, despite getting the advantage, neither one of them could create a gap or stretch a big lead. On lap 291, the HMS driver got back the lead, but at the same time, Carson Hocevar started mounting his charge. But before the young gun could make his move, the engine on the # 77 blew. Hamlin was right on the bumper of the #24 car, but he didn’t have the balance to contest for the lead, and being low on fuel, he had an unplanned pit stop on lap 388, allowing Chastain to make his move. And this is where things got interesting.

With Tyler Reddick and Joey Logano running their line in front of William Byron, all of a sudden, he had to deal with lap traffic. Reddick hit the wall and almost caught up to Byron in his wake, but he managed to dodge that. Yet, when he was clear, he couldn’t generate the speed he had and get past Logano to keep himself away from the #1 car. Apparently, in the lap traffic and being a good chaser, Chastain had the edge over Byron, and this allowed him to make that race-winning pass.

“For Byron, he’s trying to get around these lapped cars. That’s something that he hadn’t – It’s almost like Darlington. Do you remember Darlington? He dominated the race, but there was no lapped traffic. Until he got to lapped traffic, that’s where it was like, ‘Okay, he’s vulnerable!’ He couldn’t move around as good as he needed to. When I watched him, he needed two lanes to go. Luckily and fortunately for me, the one lane he was leaving open was where I was best. That made for really, really good racing because he was never really in my way or in my lane, and I never was in his. We both got to utilise our strength.” Hamlin explained further.

But there’s more to this story, which Ross Chastain explained after the race. It looks like Chastain was keeping a close eye on the battle between Hamlin and Byron, and he avoided the mistake both these drivers made to ensure he bags his first win of the season.

Ross Chastain reveals the trick he used to get past Byron

The 600-mile marathon was a slow, hard grind for the Trackhouse Racing driver after he was forced to use his backup car. Conditions changed drastically when light came on at Charlotte Motor Speedway and the #1 car finally nailed their set-up. While Byron led the laps and dominated the race, when it came to holding onto the lead, he had a hard time. If not Chastain, the #77 of Hocevar would’ve got the back bumper of the #24 HMS Chevy.

Chastain understood that once he got the lead late in the race, trying to outrun his rival wasn’t the best bet. Instead, he chose to shadow drive his rival, and he has mastered the art of defending. “I don’t want to just win races by 10 seconds a lap. I have no interest in winning by a lap ever. So as soon as I got the lead, it was just, ‘Don’t hit the wall, don’t get tight.’ We’re both tight, the #24 and #1 car had very similar setups tonight. Part of the key partner alliance, we work together. We were both sliding out front tires, so I just thought. ‘Give myself some wiggle room off the wall’ and he wasn’t able to get back to me.”

The difference between the two cars as they came to the start finish line was just 0.673 seconds. As it turns out, it wasn’t about who had the fastest car on the day, but rather who played their cards right. And Ross Chastain nailed the latter part and bagged himself a spot in the playoffs.